Ofcom: We need 5G spectrum planning for the future’s ultramobes

Despite the majority of Reg readers thinking that 5G can wait, there needs to be some planning as to how spectrum will be allocated if the same frequencies are to be made available globally. The need for international harmony on use of millimetre spectrum was the focus of a recent presentation by UK regulator Ofcom to the LTE …

[W Donelson]

Great bandwidth until you hit the wall

Not through walls = not for me.

[TeeCee]

Crystal ball?

...try and make those spectrum decisions on imperfect knowledge.”

Which sounds better than "guesswork", even if it means exactly the same thing. Presumably OFCOM are looking to hire Mystic Meg as a consultant in order to firm up those 5G requirements.

[Anonymous Coward]

we had 2g, then we had 3g

Now we have LTE, not 4g. Can someone remind me, again, why its called LTE.

[Martin0641]

Re: we had 2g, then we had 3g

Here ya go

https://tasel.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/lte-hsdpa-dc-hsdpa-explain-this-alphbet-soup-of-4g-to-me/

[Slap]

we had 2g, then we had 3g

I'll happily remind you.

It stands for Long Term Evolution. A standard that was designed to be able to evolve as new radio technologies emerged.

My sentiment is pretty much the same as your's. I can already receive data faster with my phone than I can with my wired internet connection at home with LTE (but that's because I haven't yet activated the fibre connection in my flat).

The truth is that if they're going to start talking up yet another mobile data standard already then we'll end up with a half built LTE infrastructure as the telcos will hold back, not wanting to invest, while waiting for the new standard to be finalised. Add to that, that the government will want it's wedge by holding the telcos to ransom - er, I mean auction off the relevant radio spectrum for the new standard.

Currently as it stands here in Zürich sitting in the back of a bar with only 2 bars of LTE signal I got just over 20Mbps pretty consistently using that Ooklaa speedtest benchmark - which is actually 10Mbps faster than the bar's WiFi. Out in the open I get 50Mbps reliably and in some places 100Mbps is achievable.

That's way in excess of what I need for my mobile workloads, so a better LTE infrastucture covering weak areas would be way better for me than yet another standard.