5G is a con

[TomH1]

Sat on a train with phone stating 5G at full signal and even basic websites like a newspaper site or TikTok are so slow to load it is frankly unbearable. I am in central London. The situation is the same wherever I go. I have a 16MB Ram OnePlus and the phone is lightening fast.

I have a 45 second screen recording of the Amazon App loading a query for "shoe rack" and still in 45 seconds no query was resolved. 4G, it loads quickly.

I am in central London, next to Euston station. There is no excuse.

Don't get me started when the train starts to move because then it definitely won't work.

This is 2024 people and the signal worked better in 2020 than they do now.

5G is false advertising and yo in should either switch it off or repair it because it does not work. It is slower than 4G in most places. Sick of the lies and the fact that this has been the case for months and months.

[TomH1]

"Everything Everywhere" 5G is completely useless EVERYWHERE. I am in London outside Euston station and the situation is the same. It is all a lie. 4G is faster than 5G unless you are stood within 5 feet of a mast. 

The regulator does nothing. It is the same everywhere I go. 

5G was a big con.

[bristolian]

To say a particular radio technology is useless "everywhere" implies experience of every geographical location it's available, the length & breadth of the UK. Your experience seems limited to one small area of central London.

The performance of a radio technology depends largely on the frequencies deployed and the associated network design. Either tech could be faster than the other, given favourable conditions. It certainly isn't primarily to do with distance to the TX antenna.

[TomH1]

Ok Bristolian but my experience is that it is useless everywhere I go. Slow, sluggish and certainly slower than 4G.

I don't know the mechanics of it. When writing my comment, I was central London next to Euston station. My experience is the same in Hemel Hempstead, , St Alban's, Heathrow T5, Bristol, central Reading. 

So rather than snarky comments, and no actual helpful rebuttal, I will await someone who knows what they Re talking about to answer this question.

[bristolian]

All of those locations remain in the South & SE of the UK. There's a lot more to the country!

4G & 5G are radio technologies, the "G" broadly dictates how data is encoded between the mobile & network. The coverage patterns & speeds achievable, are dictated far more by the frequencies in use.

EE use a combination of 800Mhz, 1800Mhz, 2100Mhz & 2600Mhz for 4G. 5G is deployed on 700Mhz, 1800Mhz, 2100Mhz & 3500Mhz

The combinations of bands & frequencies allows for broad area "umbrella" coverage and "hotspot" style localised capacity. There are small-cell & other high-band pico deployments around Euston Station providing localised capacity on 4G, I can't recall off-hand whether those micro-sites are 5G-NR equipped.

[Rach_H]

Hi @TomH1,

Thanks for letting us know about the trouble you're having.

This certainly isn't the speeds we'd expect you to be seeing on 5G, and I can understand how frustrating this must be. I'd recommend speaking with our Technical experts, if this seems to be happening everywhere you are, and they will be able to check if there is anything on your account which may be causing this, or a deeper issue. Reach out to them on 150, and they'll be happy to take a look.

Rach

[bristolian]

The other possibility is an interworking issue - that is, a 5G phone is designed to prefer a usable 5G layer over a (perceivably weaker) 4G one. In the exact same way a 3G phone preferred that over 2G.

I would need to check the specifics of Euston Station as to whether this is a possibility, but if you have a base coverage layer of 5G-NR in a location that has good high-band 4G-LTE coverage, then the symptoms you describe here, could be the result. And if so, the fix is for there to be additional 5G spectrum deployed, be it either from neighbouring macro sites or on an in-building basis.

I would expect this to be location-specific, though.

[Dave-]

“ I have a 16MB Ram OnePlus”

That sounds quite underpowered. Have you considered getting a new phone? Even budget phones usually come with at least 4GB of RAM these days.

😉

[Northerner]

Hi @bristolian 

I can agree with @TomH1 around Euston/Kings cross the service is terrible. And don't get me on about the tube as both Northern and Metropolitan lines EE network hardly works, the metropolitan especially as it is mostly overground). 

Fenchurch street area near the WTW/Lloyds building is particularly poor at street level. 

I will post a picture Monday of our office in Fenchurch avenue, zero reception on the second floor. 

Thanks 

[TomH1]

This was obviously a typo. It is a 16GB Ram handset and it is new. Has the same problem on the handset before it. My partner with her Samsung has the same problem.

Lots of talk on here about how it shouldn't be and to speak to an representative but you guys need boots on the ground and assessing these things in real life. Not just assuming things are good. They are not good.

I go abroad, I can get signal everywhere. Portugal for example. Flawless signal in Lisbon.

London? A major world city. It just doesn't work properly anywhere  and is super frustrating.