with higher speeds and lower latency than 4g lte 5g promises to be better for
basically every mobile application whether it's watching hd video on the go
getting critical real-time data to autonomous vehicles or just gaming while
you're out and about without annoying lag but there's a catch so t-mobile
reached out to sponsor a video where we're gonna talk about some of the
obstacles getting in the way of certain 5g deployments because when you hear
about 5g being as fast or maybe even faster than your home internet
connection that's actually well true
5g has been clocked at speeds in excess of one gigabit per second in the real
world but in order to hit those speeds 5g relies on a segment of the wireless
spectrum called millimeter wave it can also be blocked by pretty much anything
think of the 2.4 gigahertz and 5 gigahertz bands on your home wi-fi
access point they're both using the same generation of antenna and chipset
technology but depending on which one you select they can have vastly
different performance characteristics so if you're in the same room as your
hotspot your five gigahertz is going to be way faster but by the time you go a
couple rooms over on the other side of a concrete wall where your 2.4 gigahertz
is still limping along you're probably lucky to have any 5 gigahertz signal at
all so back to cellular then the principle is basically the same
5g is just a term that describes the latest generation of cellular
transmission and receiving equipment so t-mobile equipped us with a device from
one of their competitors and challenged us to see just how easy it is to drop a
millimeter wave 5g connection
all right so we found a wild 5g hotspot in bryant park we're going to go ahead
and do a quick speed test here uh we've got line of sight to it on the
top of that building and we are getting some pretty rocking
download speeds here guys check this out
800 megabit per second
this is working basically exactly as we'd expect millimeter wave 5g to work
it's super super fast but that's also in very close proximity to
the tower and with no obstruction let's try another test with
just myself myself in between
not bad now that's faster than 4g
but we did knock off over 150 megabit per second the thing
though is that in this case i was even able to keep my 5g connection the
problem is that even the smallest obstacles if they're larger than this or
if you don't have a convenient surface for the signal to bounce off of can
utterly block your millimeter wave 5g
and drop you right back down to 4g lte so let's go try out a bunch of different
scenarios where ultimately 5g can be
easily blocked by the most innocuous things
yesterday we had a 5g signal here when colton was checking and now there's
none i need a 5g6
dying oh my god where is it
still nothing this is a terrible terrible early
adopter experience come on 5g
oh i got it i got it boom there it is see that okay you ready
now follow me back over da da da da
and it's gone it's myself
maybe if i move out from the sidewalk a bit
oh my god i had a 5g signal dennis you ruined everything you got to be kidding
me how to drop your millimeter wave only 5g connection
uh excuse me sir can you yeah thanks
gotta get my 5g here how to block your
millimeter wave only 5g connection just move
under an umbrella it's gone just like that it's just gone
no more 5g you want your 5g back you got it you got to get out from under the
umbrella sorry guys and give it a hot minute
maybe turn your data back on and off there you go all right it's great it's
good experience
and it's gone
and it's gone 4g
and there it goes it's gone
how easy is it to drop a millimeter wave only 5g connection
well you don't even have to make it all the way into the subway let's see how
many steps this takes one
two three four
five six seven
and we're done we're done bud all right all right so
you guys get the point now it's time to answer the question that surely everyone
has on their mind right now what exactly is t-mobile doing sponsoring videos
about how millimeter wave 5g has terrible terrible reception issues
isn't t-mobile also planning to deploy millimeter wave 5g because yes
yes in fact they are i mean when i first talked to them about this i was like
i'm sorry what well as it turns out they're planning a very different 5g
strategy compared to some of their competitors the goal is to use a
combination of the low and high band frequencies that they already own along
with the mid band frequencies that they're hoping to acquire through the
sprint merger in early 2020 in order to
hit that perfect trifecta of both high
speeds and great coverage and they're doing it now t-mobile's 5g network is
rolling out in over 5 000 u.s cities and
thanks to their low band towers it'll even work
indoors to learn more about what t-mobile's doing in the 5g space guys
check out the link in the video description thanks to t-mobile for sponsoring this video and thanks you
guys for watching it