News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Show HN: A USB-C LTE modem that gives my computer a phone line. Parent comment

Re:Show HN: A USB-C LTE modem that gives my computer a phone... by gruez on Saturday October 31, 2026 @04:54PM (#50320110)
It's not just spectrum, though. The core network is totally different than 5G SA or whatever 6G has. Maintaining all of that will eventually be considered not worth the trouble, and it'll be decommissioned. If anything decommissioning will be faster for LTE because unlike 2G/3G (which were needed because VoLTE support was flakely and had device whitelists) there isn't much point in keeping LTE around for legacy reasons.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Show HN: A USB-C LTE modem that gives my computer a phone... by cowlevel on Saturday October 31, 2026 @05:12PM (#50320291)
What are the differences between 4G and 5G core networks?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Show HN: A USB-C LTE modem that gives my computer a phone... by gruez on Saturday October 31, 2026 @05:16PM (#50320326)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G#Core_network_architecture

Big enough that most carriers can't even launch 5G with its associated core network ("5G standalone"), and had to use the kludge of 5G + 4G core network ("5G non-standalone)

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Show HN: A USB-C LTE modem that gives my computer a phone... by cowlevel on Sunday November 01, 2026 @12:39AM (#50322755)
Doesn't sound incompatible. So far these new architectures have just been different ways of describing mostly the same thing. E.g. the NodeB from 3G becomes the eNodeB in 4G, and it's not actually a different thing, it just describes one that has been upgraded with 4G support. In practice the exact same device is both NodeB and eNodeB in a 3G/4G network.
[ Parent | on HN ]