Re:Verizon, AT&T Customers Sue to Undo T-Mobile Merger, Sayi...
by ThatPlayer on Wednesday November 08, 2023 @01:25AM
(#38187358)
5G does not require more points of presence than LTE. They can run on the same frequencies, which is where properties of range and penetration come from. 5G has additional higher frequencies with those issues yes, but they're not the only form of 5G.
It's like the difference between 2.4Ghz wifi, and 5/6 Ghz wifi. Wifi 6 adds 6 Ghz which has decreased ranged, but that doesn't stop you from running Wifi 6 on 2.4Ghz, which still comes with improvements. If you're making a new deployment it's not going to be Wifi 5 on 2.4Ghz.
In that same way, new towers are going to be 5G. The only drawback of running 5G instead of 4G on the same frequency is device compatibility.
It's like the difference between 2.4Ghz wifi, and 5/6 Ghz wifi. Wifi 6 adds 6 Ghz which has decreased ranged, but that doesn't stop you from running Wifi 6 on 2.4Ghz, which still comes with improvements. If you're making a new deployment it's not going to be Wifi 5 on 2.4Ghz.
In that same way, new towers are going to be 5G. The only drawback of running 5G instead of 4G on the same frequency is device compatibility.
AT&T runs 4G and 5G on bands 2. And are shutting down 4G on band 5 to migrate to 5G: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_Mobility#Radio_frequenc...