1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to tex Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,200 --> 00:00:14,720 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:17,800 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 4 00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:23,479 Speaker 1: and a love all things tech. So in March I 5 00:00:23,600 --> 00:00:28,680 Speaker 1: published an episode titled what is five G? Meaning the 6 00:00:28,720 --> 00:00:33,040 Speaker 1: generation of wireless technologies that have a slow, arguably a 7 00:00:33,159 --> 00:00:38,479 Speaker 1: painstakingly slow rollout. But since then there's been a lot 8 00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:42,120 Speaker 1: of weird misinformation related to what five G is and 9 00:00:42,320 --> 00:00:44,879 Speaker 1: what it does and what it can do, and so 10 00:00:45,479 --> 00:00:47,680 Speaker 1: I figured it would be good to revisit the topic 11 00:00:47,960 --> 00:00:51,400 Speaker 1: and try to clear some stuff up. There are some 12 00:00:51,479 --> 00:00:55,520 Speaker 1: myths and misconceptions that we need to address, and some 13 00:00:55,640 --> 00:00:59,520 Speaker 1: of this is due to questionable marketing decisions from various companies. 14 00:00:59,800 --> 00:01:02,880 Speaker 1: Some of it has to do with magical thinking, and 15 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:06,720 Speaker 1: some of it I can't explain from a psychological standpoint. 16 00:01:07,280 --> 00:01:10,600 Speaker 1: So let's begin with a rundown of what the G 17 00:01:11,319 --> 00:01:14,280 Speaker 1: means here. As I mentioned it, it means generation, as 18 00:01:14,280 --> 00:01:18,880 Speaker 1: in the fifth generation of mobile network technologies that allow 19 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:24,319 Speaker 1: for the wireless transmission of information, including voice communications and 20 00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:27,640 Speaker 1: these days stuff like Internet surfing and all the data 21 00:01:27,680 --> 00:01:30,200 Speaker 1: you need for all those apps that are on your phone. 22 00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:34,160 Speaker 1: But it's good to remember that we're talking about families 23 00:01:34,319 --> 00:01:40,679 Speaker 1: of technologies. Five G isn't like a single unified technological implementation, 24 00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:45,600 Speaker 1: which kind of already makes it confusing. So the first 25 00:01:45,800 --> 00:01:50,840 Speaker 1: generation of mobile network technologies was analog, not digital, and 26 00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:53,520 Speaker 1: it allowed for voice calls, but you couldn't even send 27 00:01:53,560 --> 00:01:57,280 Speaker 1: text over this network. The technology also had some pretty 28 00:01:57,320 --> 00:02:00,600 Speaker 1: big limitations to it, including a lack of a liable 29 00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:04,600 Speaker 1: form of security, so it was possible to snoop on 30 00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:07,000 Speaker 1: calls if you knew what you were doing. There was 31 00:02:07,040 --> 00:02:11,080 Speaker 1: also a problem with stuff like interference from other radio signals, 32 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:14,680 Speaker 1: which ties into another topic, that of setting aside certain 33 00:02:14,720 --> 00:02:18,080 Speaker 1: bands of radio frequencies for specific uses. Well, touch on 34 00:02:18,120 --> 00:02:21,400 Speaker 1: that again later. Uh, if you don't do that, if 35 00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:25,760 Speaker 1: you don't set aside specific bands for specific purposes, then 36 00:02:25,800 --> 00:02:30,920 Speaker 1: any company could make any device that transmits and receives 37 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:33,960 Speaker 1: on any given radio frequency, and then you would quickly 38 00:02:34,120 --> 00:02:37,400 Speaker 1: enter into a situation where interference would be a big problem, 39 00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:42,000 Speaker 1: like if your emergency services radio signals are on the 40 00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:46,680 Speaker 1: same channel frequencies as television, that would be terrible. The 41 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:51,880 Speaker 1: original cellular technologies were emerging in the late nineties seventies, 42 00:02:52,240 --> 00:02:56,360 Speaker 1: but they stuck around until the early nine nineties. Really 43 00:02:56,400 --> 00:02:59,640 Speaker 1: we wouldn't refer to them as one G technologies except 44 00:02:59,639 --> 00:03:03,639 Speaker 1: in reet respect. In around ninety one, we saw digital 45 00:03:03,639 --> 00:03:07,200 Speaker 1: technologies take over for analog and thus we saw the 46 00:03:07,240 --> 00:03:13,080 Speaker 1: introduction of two G mobile networks, which allowed for texting. Technically, 47 00:03:13,160 --> 00:03:15,440 Speaker 1: you could also do stuff like send pictures, you know, 48 00:03:15,520 --> 00:03:20,520 Speaker 1: multi media messaging, but it was a pretty low data throughput, 49 00:03:20,639 --> 00:03:23,600 Speaker 1: so doing that would take a while. It took a 50 00:03:23,600 --> 00:03:28,799 Speaker 1: while to upload and then download over these uh these specifications. 51 00:03:29,639 --> 00:03:34,560 Speaker 1: There were some incremental improvements of the underlying technologies in 52 00:03:34,600 --> 00:03:39,920 Speaker 1: the second generations. So sometimes you'll hear about specific implementations 53 00:03:39,920 --> 00:03:43,000 Speaker 1: being referred to as two point five G or two 54 00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:47,160 Speaker 1: point seven five G really meaning a more advanced version 55 00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:52,080 Speaker 1: of two G technology, but not transformational enough to necessitate 56 00:03:52,320 --> 00:03:55,200 Speaker 1: a brand new number. And we saw a couple of 57 00:03:55,200 --> 00:03:59,200 Speaker 1: different versions of two G and they were not compatible 58 00:03:59,200 --> 00:04:01,080 Speaker 1: with each other. There was more than a couple, but 59 00:04:01,240 --> 00:04:05,360 Speaker 1: two of them would end up really taking hold, and 60 00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:07,920 Speaker 1: those were G S M and C d M A. 61 00:04:08,080 --> 00:04:11,040 Speaker 1: So we kind of had a forking path of mobile 62 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:15,720 Speaker 1: networking technologies for a while. Both implementations met the standards 63 00:04:15,720 --> 00:04:18,280 Speaker 1: for two G service. In other words, they both were 64 00:04:18,320 --> 00:04:22,279 Speaker 1: able to do what two G was specified as doing. 65 00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:27,560 Speaker 1: Most of the specifications were largely defined with data throughput 66 00:04:27,600 --> 00:04:31,359 Speaker 1: speeds and the supported services that the technology should be 67 00:04:31,360 --> 00:04:35,720 Speaker 1: able to handle. But it also illustrated that when we 68 00:04:35,760 --> 00:04:39,840 Speaker 1: talk in g S, we don't necessarily mean a unified, 69 00:04:40,279 --> 00:04:43,200 Speaker 1: you know, monolithic approach. If you had a C d 70 00:04:43,400 --> 00:04:45,599 Speaker 1: M A phone and you traveled to a place that 71 00:04:45,839 --> 00:04:48,839 Speaker 1: only had G S M service like a GSM network, 72 00:04:49,520 --> 00:04:51,760 Speaker 1: you would discover that your phone just didn't work on 73 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:53,920 Speaker 1: those networks, and vice versa. If you had a G 74 00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:56,159 Speaker 1: S M phone and you went to a place that 75 00:04:56,240 --> 00:04:59,000 Speaker 1: only had C d M A service, you'd be out 76 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:01,640 Speaker 1: of lock. Now you could find phones that had chips 77 00:05:01,640 --> 00:05:04,480 Speaker 1: in them, uh SIM chips that would make them compatible 78 00:05:04,480 --> 00:05:07,240 Speaker 1: with both, but they were the exception, not the rule, 79 00:05:07,480 --> 00:05:10,680 Speaker 1: and they tended to be very expensive. The subsequent generations 80 00:05:10,760 --> 00:05:14,040 Speaker 1: saw new transmission standards that would allow for larger data 81 00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:17,400 Speaker 1: transfers per unit of time. Now we typically refer to 82 00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:21,360 Speaker 1: that as speed, but the speed is kind of like 83 00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:24,839 Speaker 1: speed is tricky. You're really talking about the data moving 84 00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:27,280 Speaker 1: at the same speed as just that you could transport 85 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:31,239 Speaker 1: larger chunks at a time. So instead of it thinking 86 00:05:31,279 --> 00:05:33,960 Speaker 1: of it as um faster, think of it as just 87 00:05:34,080 --> 00:05:38,400 Speaker 1: more more through put. Uh So we often refer to 88 00:05:38,480 --> 00:05:40,720 Speaker 1: it just as you know, each generation is faster than 89 00:05:40,720 --> 00:05:43,400 Speaker 1: previous generations. What we really mean is we don't have 90 00:05:43,440 --> 00:05:47,080 Speaker 1: to wait as long for stuff to happen, And in 91 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:50,000 Speaker 1: four G we would see some additional services introduced on 92 00:05:50,040 --> 00:05:52,080 Speaker 1: top of the ones that were already supported by the 93 00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:56,560 Speaker 1: earlier generations. Also, the move to the LTE standard in 94 00:05:56,640 --> 00:06:00,480 Speaker 1: four G brought those forking paths of d M A 95 00:06:00,640 --> 00:06:02,880 Speaker 1: and g s M kind of back together. It was 96 00:06:03,080 --> 00:06:06,840 Speaker 1: a globally agreed upon standard, although not everyone was using 97 00:06:06,880 --> 00:06:11,159 Speaker 1: the same radio frequency bands. So while technically the standard 98 00:06:11,240 --> 00:06:13,800 Speaker 1: would be the same from country to country, you could 99 00:06:13,839 --> 00:06:16,279 Speaker 1: still have a phone not work if you were to 100 00:06:16,360 --> 00:06:19,240 Speaker 1: travel to a different country just because if your phone 101 00:06:19,279 --> 00:06:22,279 Speaker 1: antenna did not support the radio frequencies that were being 102 00:06:22,400 --> 00:06:26,560 Speaker 1: used by the country's network, you still wouldn't have service. 103 00:06:27,360 --> 00:06:31,280 Speaker 1: For a while, phones were still you know, needing the 104 00:06:31,320 --> 00:06:34,159 Speaker 1: older C d M A and GSM networks for the 105 00:06:34,160 --> 00:06:39,359 Speaker 1: purposes of voice calls because originally four G mobile carriers 106 00:06:39,360 --> 00:06:43,080 Speaker 1: didn't have four J support voice over for G it's 107 00:06:43,160 --> 00:06:46,640 Speaker 1: kind of crazy, but it did come around, so that 108 00:06:46,760 --> 00:06:51,720 Speaker 1: would ultimately lead to the the potential to phase out 109 00:06:51,920 --> 00:06:54,240 Speaker 1: G S M and C D M A. And I 110 00:06:54,279 --> 00:06:57,719 Speaker 1: think there's a general tendency one that I I myself 111 00:06:57,760 --> 00:07:01,080 Speaker 1: had found myself falling into to go a spinal tap 112 00:07:01,520 --> 00:07:03,480 Speaker 1: on these kind of things. By that, I mean the 113 00:07:03,480 --> 00:07:05,640 Speaker 1: movie Spinal Tap. For those who don't know what I 114 00:07:05,680 --> 00:07:10,000 Speaker 1: mean by this, there's a scene in a mockumentary comedy 115 00:07:10,080 --> 00:07:13,440 Speaker 1: film called This Is Spinal Tap. It follows a fictional 116 00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:17,240 Speaker 1: heavy metal band, and in one iconic scene in particular, 117 00:07:18,040 --> 00:07:21,320 Speaker 1: there's a character named Nigel who is showing off his 118 00:07:21,880 --> 00:07:26,520 Speaker 1: beloved amplifier, which, as he points out, has dials that 119 00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:30,640 Speaker 1: go up to eleven rather than the standard ten. And 120 00:07:30,720 --> 00:07:33,760 Speaker 1: Nigel's point is that these go to eleven. It seems 121 00:07:33,760 --> 00:07:37,040 Speaker 1: to indicate that because the number on the dial is 122 00:07:37,200 --> 00:07:41,800 Speaker 1: larger than ten, it must therefore be louder than amplifiers 123 00:07:41,800 --> 00:07:45,840 Speaker 1: that go up to ten. But obviously you really can 124 00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:49,200 Speaker 1: just make ten louder. You can make a louder amplifier 125 00:07:49,200 --> 00:07:51,680 Speaker 1: and still have ten b the top number, and you 126 00:07:51,760 --> 00:07:55,240 Speaker 1: just change the scale because there's no meaningful advantage to 127 00:07:55,360 --> 00:07:58,320 Speaker 1: having an eleven on a dial because there's no universal 128 00:07:58,400 --> 00:08:03,960 Speaker 1: standard for what each increment of amplifier means. From a 129 00:08:03,960 --> 00:08:07,440 Speaker 1: louder perspective, there's no universal approach to this. You know, 130 00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:10,000 Speaker 1: you can just put a sticker on an amplifier and 131 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:12,280 Speaker 1: change a dial that went from one to tend to 132 00:08:12,800 --> 00:08:15,640 Speaker 1: one to eleven. You've just changed the scale a little bit. Well, 133 00:08:15,760 --> 00:08:18,800 Speaker 1: with tech in general, we tend to have these expectations 134 00:08:18,840 --> 00:08:23,520 Speaker 1: that with each subsequent generation, with each number of a technology, 135 00:08:24,240 --> 00:08:27,640 Speaker 1: the most recent number will be more powerful than the 136 00:08:27,760 --> 00:08:32,160 Speaker 1: previous ones. And it's like engineers have taken the old 137 00:08:32,160 --> 00:08:33,800 Speaker 1: way of doing things and just made it, you know, 138 00:08:34,160 --> 00:08:38,280 Speaker 1: more better, or something like it's the same technology as before, 139 00:08:38,320 --> 00:08:40,800 Speaker 1: only now it can do what the old technology did, 140 00:08:40,880 --> 00:08:43,719 Speaker 1: but faster and with more power. But that is not 141 00:08:43,920 --> 00:08:48,720 Speaker 1: always the way things work, and particularly with wireless data transmissions, 142 00:08:48,760 --> 00:08:52,560 Speaker 1: it's not necessarily true. Complicating this is that there are 143 00:08:52,600 --> 00:08:55,760 Speaker 1: other factors that can affect your data throughput no matter 144 00:08:56,120 --> 00:08:59,040 Speaker 1: what g you happen to be using. Stuff like the 145 00:08:59,120 --> 00:09:02,120 Speaker 1: number of people who are using that particular network spot, 146 00:09:02,679 --> 00:09:06,319 Speaker 1: or how far away you are from the transmission antenna, 147 00:09:06,480 --> 00:09:09,480 Speaker 1: or what the signal to noise ratio is for that 148 00:09:09,559 --> 00:09:11,960 Speaker 1: particular network. You know, if there are a lot of 149 00:09:11,960 --> 00:09:15,360 Speaker 1: people watching I don't know, four K streams of the 150 00:09:15,360 --> 00:09:18,640 Speaker 1: Mandalorian on their phones, which would be weird because I mean, 151 00:09:18,679 --> 00:09:21,360 Speaker 1: who needs the four K resolution of that screen size? 152 00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:24,800 Speaker 1: But anyway, well, that much traffic is going to be 153 00:09:24,840 --> 00:09:29,520 Speaker 1: a factor. It's going to start overwhelming the network. Or 154 00:09:29,640 --> 00:09:32,360 Speaker 1: if you're at the very edge of a service area, 155 00:09:32,840 --> 00:09:35,679 Speaker 1: that could affect you too. And if both factors are 156 00:09:35,720 --> 00:09:37,400 Speaker 1: in play, you know you're at the very edge of 157 00:09:37,400 --> 00:09:39,880 Speaker 1: a service area and everybody else is watching the Mandalorian 158 00:09:39,880 --> 00:09:42,559 Speaker 1: in four K, you might feel like your technology is 159 00:09:42,559 --> 00:09:44,920 Speaker 1: actually taken a step backward. You might feel like, wow, 160 00:09:44,960 --> 00:09:47,559 Speaker 1: this is slower than my old phone. Now. Don't get 161 00:09:47,559 --> 00:09:51,160 Speaker 1: me wrong, the differences between one generation of wireless tech 162 00:09:51,200 --> 00:09:54,400 Speaker 1: and the next can be significant. They can involve new 163 00:09:54,400 --> 00:09:58,360 Speaker 1: ways to encode and transmit information, but sometimes that means that, 164 00:09:58,480 --> 00:10:01,560 Speaker 1: at least initially, you might not actually see an improvement 165 00:10:01,720 --> 00:10:05,520 Speaker 1: when it comes to data throughput. Further, depending on the standard, 166 00:10:05,760 --> 00:10:07,839 Speaker 1: the number of people on a network can really make 167 00:10:07,840 --> 00:10:10,120 Speaker 1: a big difference to the quality of service that each 168 00:10:10,160 --> 00:10:13,520 Speaker 1: person receives. And it also helps to remember that generations 169 00:10:13,520 --> 00:10:17,760 Speaker 1: are not bordered by hard and fast beginning and ending points. 170 00:10:18,160 --> 00:10:21,160 Speaker 1: They bleed into each other. Typically there's a lot of 171 00:10:21,240 --> 00:10:24,920 Speaker 1: overlap between one generation and the next. I mean major 172 00:10:25,200 --> 00:10:28,240 Speaker 1: operators in the United States kept that old two G 173 00:10:28,480 --> 00:10:33,240 Speaker 1: network active up until twenty so there can even be 174 00:10:33,320 --> 00:10:36,199 Speaker 1: overlap between a current generation and two or three generations 175 00:10:36,200 --> 00:10:39,400 Speaker 1: of technology that came earlier. And we can have situations 176 00:10:39,400 --> 00:10:43,439 Speaker 1: where say a three G transmission is you know, faster 177 00:10:43,880 --> 00:10:46,920 Speaker 1: and more reliable than a four G you know, or 178 00:10:46,920 --> 00:10:50,680 Speaker 1: an LTE transmission. And just as I mentioned before, a 179 00:10:50,720 --> 00:10:53,760 Speaker 1: network congestion can do that. Right as someone who used 180 00:10:53,760 --> 00:10:56,719 Speaker 1: to go to really big tech conferences, like when those 181 00:10:56,760 --> 00:10:58,559 Speaker 1: were still a thing, you know, like C E S, 182 00:10:59,480 --> 00:11:01,360 Speaker 1: I would off make it a habit to switch my 183 00:11:01,400 --> 00:11:05,080 Speaker 1: phone manually over to three G service because the four 184 00:11:05,160 --> 00:11:09,080 Speaker 1: G networks would just be overwhelmed by traffic. Implementations of 185 00:11:09,120 --> 00:11:12,560 Speaker 1: these technologies can improve over time. So if you have 186 00:11:12,640 --> 00:11:17,200 Speaker 1: a late generation three G system and hand set and 187 00:11:17,280 --> 00:11:20,360 Speaker 1: you were to compare that against an early generation four 188 00:11:20,440 --> 00:11:24,040 Speaker 1: G LTE system and phone, the three G setup might 189 00:11:24,080 --> 00:11:27,360 Speaker 1: actually have better performance than the LT version. So the 190 00:11:27,360 --> 00:11:30,960 Speaker 1: three G phone on the three G network might have 191 00:11:31,080 --> 00:11:33,000 Speaker 1: better performance than the four G phone on the four 192 00:11:33,040 --> 00:11:36,480 Speaker 1: G network, you know, only because the three G one 193 00:11:36,679 --> 00:11:39,160 Speaker 1: occurred late in the life cycle when a lot of 194 00:11:39,160 --> 00:11:42,240 Speaker 1: advances had been made, and the four G came early 195 00:11:42,840 --> 00:11:47,480 Speaker 1: in that generation cycle before those improvements were made, and 196 00:11:48,480 --> 00:11:52,079 Speaker 1: on the surface, again seem counterintuitive. Again, four is bigger 197 00:11:52,120 --> 00:11:54,520 Speaker 1: than three, so it should be faster, and ultimately it 198 00:11:54,800 --> 00:11:57,720 Speaker 1: got there, but doesn't mean that it's like that round 199 00:11:57,760 --> 00:12:00,079 Speaker 1: the gate. We're seeing some of that with five G 200 00:12:00,280 --> 00:12:02,599 Speaker 1: rollout as well, which I'm sure it comes as a 201 00:12:02,640 --> 00:12:05,600 Speaker 1: frustration for some customers, and it doesn't help that there's 202 00:12:05,640 --> 00:12:09,640 Speaker 1: been some confusion, some of it purposefully promoted about what 203 00:12:09,880 --> 00:12:14,199 Speaker 1: does and doesn't qualify as actual five G. The organization 204 00:12:14,200 --> 00:12:18,640 Speaker 1: that determines what is five G is the International Telecommunication 205 00:12:18,760 --> 00:12:23,560 Speaker 1: Union or i TU. In the i TU announced its 206 00:12:23,640 --> 00:12:27,400 Speaker 1: specs for the technical requirements for five G radio interfaces. 207 00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:31,280 Speaker 1: Those specifications were more focused on what the five G 208 00:12:31,440 --> 00:12:35,600 Speaker 1: should be able to do, which included stuff like the 209 00:12:35,640 --> 00:12:39,240 Speaker 1: five G cell itself that is the network connection point 210 00:12:39,679 --> 00:12:42,680 Speaker 1: for devices like a cell tower kind of thing, and 211 00:12:42,760 --> 00:12:45,960 Speaker 1: that these should have at least twenty gigabits per second 212 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:49,599 Speaker 1: download capacity at minimum, so it should be able to 213 00:12:49,640 --> 00:12:55,360 Speaker 1: support twenty billion bits per second of downloading at minimum, 214 00:12:55,400 --> 00:12:57,400 Speaker 1: and it also should be able to support again at 215 00:12:57,440 --> 00:13:01,160 Speaker 1: minimum ten gigabits per second of upload speed to the 216 00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:06,160 Speaker 1: network at large from each five G connection tower. Now 217 00:13:06,200 --> 00:13:10,000 Speaker 1: that does not mean that if your cellular service provider 218 00:13:10,120 --> 00:13:12,840 Speaker 1: rolls out a robust five G network, you would be 219 00:13:12,880 --> 00:13:15,760 Speaker 1: able to pull down twenty gigabits per second and download 220 00:13:15,800 --> 00:13:19,040 Speaker 1: speed on your phone. If you could, that would be 221 00:13:20,360 --> 00:13:24,240 Speaker 1: I mean, that would be amazing. But no, this spec 222 00:13:24,360 --> 00:13:28,200 Speaker 1: calls for a user download speed of at least one 223 00:13:28,280 --> 00:13:32,640 Speaker 1: hundred megabits per second and an upload of fifty megabits 224 00:13:32,640 --> 00:13:35,400 Speaker 1: per second, which is pretty darn close to what you 225 00:13:35,440 --> 00:13:38,880 Speaker 1: can get with four G LTE on a good day. 226 00:13:39,040 --> 00:13:41,559 Speaker 1: And it's also good to remember that, depending on conditions, 227 00:13:41,600 --> 00:13:45,320 Speaker 1: you might not get peak speeds. In fact, it would 228 00:13:45,320 --> 00:13:49,319 Speaker 1: be pretty rare when you did get the peak performance 229 00:13:49,360 --> 00:13:52,240 Speaker 1: out of this technology. Anyone who has tested their home 230 00:13:52,280 --> 00:13:55,640 Speaker 1: internet connection is probably familiar with this, because speeds are 231 00:13:55,720 --> 00:14:00,520 Speaker 1: usually below, and sometimes well below the advertised peak performance 232 00:14:00,559 --> 00:14:04,520 Speaker 1: that you'll see from providers. That's why those little asterisks 233 00:14:04,600 --> 00:14:09,079 Speaker 1: after a claim in an advertisement are so important. Now, 234 00:14:09,720 --> 00:14:12,400 Speaker 1: the one D megabits down and fifty megabits up is 235 00:14:12,400 --> 00:14:16,160 Speaker 1: supposed to be the minimum data throughput for users, so 236 00:14:16,280 --> 00:14:20,520 Speaker 1: it's not like that that's the peak of five G service. Either. 237 00:14:20,920 --> 00:14:24,840 Speaker 1: A good five G network and compatible devices could mean 238 00:14:24,920 --> 00:14:30,000 Speaker 1: faster filed downloads, lower latency, better streaming services, all due 239 00:14:30,040 --> 00:14:33,920 Speaker 1: to this increase throughput. But the five G technologies can 240 00:14:33,960 --> 00:14:38,280 Speaker 1: make use of different bands of wireless frequencies, and that's 241 00:14:38,320 --> 00:14:40,960 Speaker 1: also going to change things up and make stuff more complicated. 242 00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:44,680 Speaker 1: In other words, not all five G is equal. There's 243 00:14:45,120 --> 00:14:48,280 Speaker 1: five G and then there's five G if you get 244 00:14:48,280 --> 00:14:50,920 Speaker 1: what I mean, and I'll explain more in a minute. 245 00:14:51,600 --> 00:14:54,280 Speaker 1: The standard also called for the support of up to 246 00:14:54,440 --> 00:14:59,240 Speaker 1: one million connected devices per square kilometer of space, So 247 00:14:59,400 --> 00:15:01,800 Speaker 1: a big part that is due to the proliferation of 248 00:15:01,840 --> 00:15:05,120 Speaker 1: the Internet of things devices that are putting an increasing 249 00:15:05,160 --> 00:15:09,080 Speaker 1: strain on networks, and arguably that one million per square 250 00:15:09,120 --> 00:15:12,440 Speaker 1: kilometer is actually falling behind as far as the Internet 251 00:15:12,480 --> 00:15:15,720 Speaker 1: of things trend is going, but that's another topic. There 252 00:15:15,760 --> 00:15:18,920 Speaker 1: are a few other specifications for five G that are important. 253 00:15:19,440 --> 00:15:22,560 Speaker 1: One is that latency, that is the delay introduced when 254 00:15:22,640 --> 00:15:28,040 Speaker 1: transmitting and receiving data, should be at four milliseconds. Maximum 255 00:15:28,920 --> 00:15:32,280 Speaker 1: LT part of the four G family has a latency 256 00:15:32,320 --> 00:15:36,600 Speaker 1: of twenty milliseconds or so, and that's important because generally speaking, 257 00:15:37,040 --> 00:15:40,720 Speaker 1: humans aren't really able to detect a delay less than 258 00:15:40,760 --> 00:15:43,720 Speaker 1: twenty milliseconds. And you can see how this would be 259 00:15:43,720 --> 00:15:48,640 Speaker 1: important for certain applications like augmented reality, where you've got 260 00:15:48,680 --> 00:15:51,480 Speaker 1: some sort of display that might be mounted in a 261 00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:54,640 Speaker 1: headset or glasses, or might just be through your phone 262 00:15:54,720 --> 00:15:59,200 Speaker 1: or whatever, but you need to have digital information overlaying 263 00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:02,480 Speaker 1: a view of the physical world around you. For your 264 00:16:02,600 --> 00:16:05,800 Speaker 1: average application, a short delay might not be much of 265 00:16:05,800 --> 00:16:08,920 Speaker 1: a problem, but we're starting to see some pretty audacious 266 00:16:09,040 --> 00:16:12,960 Speaker 1: uses of a R including in amusement park attractions, so 267 00:16:13,040 --> 00:16:16,400 Speaker 1: reducing latency is an important part of providing a good 268 00:16:16,440 --> 00:16:19,960 Speaker 1: immersive experience. It doesn't do you any good on a ride, 269 00:16:19,960 --> 00:16:22,840 Speaker 1: for example, if the information you see in your in 270 00:16:22,880 --> 00:16:27,880 Speaker 1: your headset is relating back to something that you've already passed, right, 271 00:16:28,080 --> 00:16:32,560 Speaker 1: it's not relevant anymore. In addition, for ultra reliable low 272 00:16:32,680 --> 00:16:36,360 Speaker 1: latency communications otherwise known as you are l l C, 273 00:16:37,080 --> 00:16:40,400 Speaker 1: the latency should be just one millisecond, which is pretty 274 00:16:40,520 --> 00:16:44,480 Speaker 1: darn responsive. There are other components to the five G 275 00:16:44,640 --> 00:16:47,960 Speaker 1: specifications from I TU, but for most of us, they're 276 00:16:48,040 --> 00:16:51,400 Speaker 1: just the technical bits and bobs that makes our stuff go. 277 00:16:52,160 --> 00:16:55,240 Speaker 1: And I think the average consumer just wants that sweet 278 00:16:55,360 --> 00:16:57,800 Speaker 1: fast connection and they don't really care about things like 279 00:16:57,880 --> 00:17:01,120 Speaker 1: spectral efficiency, even though it's actually really important for how 280 00:17:01,200 --> 00:17:03,920 Speaker 1: data will travel on five G frequencies. And we will 281 00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:07,200 Speaker 1: come back to it, all right, So I mentioned frequency 282 00:17:07,240 --> 00:17:10,000 Speaker 1: bands earlier, but what does that mean. Well, we got 283 00:17:10,080 --> 00:17:13,440 Speaker 1: to do a quick rundown on radio waves, which we 284 00:17:13,480 --> 00:17:24,040 Speaker 1: will do right after this quick break. So we tend 285 00:17:24,080 --> 00:17:28,680 Speaker 1: to talk about radio waves in terms of frequency, which 286 00:17:28,720 --> 00:17:32,320 Speaker 1: is how many radio wave lengths will pass a given 287 00:17:32,359 --> 00:17:35,679 Speaker 1: point within a second. And this also links back to 288 00:17:35,800 --> 00:17:40,080 Speaker 1: the actual wave length of the radio wave. All radio 289 00:17:40,119 --> 00:17:45,120 Speaker 1: waves travel at the same speed. They are electromagnetic information 290 00:17:45,240 --> 00:17:49,640 Speaker 1: or electromagnetic signals, I should say, so in this case, 291 00:17:49,680 --> 00:17:53,119 Speaker 1: it's the length of the wave that determines how many 292 00:17:53,160 --> 00:17:57,040 Speaker 1: of that particular radio wave will pass a given point 293 00:17:57,040 --> 00:17:59,119 Speaker 1: in the second. If they're all moving at the same speed, 294 00:17:59,720 --> 00:18:02,760 Speaker 1: the the length is the only real differentiator that tells 295 00:18:02,800 --> 00:18:05,840 Speaker 1: us this. So the radio spectrum is a really big one. 296 00:18:06,160 --> 00:18:09,680 Speaker 1: And as I mentioned earlier, countries set aside specific bands 297 00:18:09,760 --> 00:18:14,560 Speaker 1: for specific purposes. Generally speaking, the full radio spectrum that 298 00:18:14,640 --> 00:18:18,360 Speaker 1: we could use for wireless communication spans from three hurts 299 00:18:18,800 --> 00:18:22,480 Speaker 1: to three hundred giga hurts, and it hurts is one 300 00:18:22,720 --> 00:18:26,560 Speaker 1: cycle per second, like one vibration per second, but in 301 00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:28,800 Speaker 1: the case of radio waves, we think of it as 302 00:18:29,119 --> 00:18:33,600 Speaker 1: one wavelength per second. So you've got a physical spot 303 00:18:33,960 --> 00:18:37,520 Speaker 1: like a start line, and it takes one full second 304 00:18:37,640 --> 00:18:41,680 Speaker 1: for a single wavelength to pass that point. That would 305 00:18:41,680 --> 00:18:45,960 Speaker 1: be a one hurts radio wave would also be incredibly 306 00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:49,520 Speaker 1: long because these things are moving wicked fast. So on 307 00:18:49,560 --> 00:18:52,639 Speaker 1: the low end of the spectrum that we tend to 308 00:18:52,720 --> 00:18:56,440 Speaker 1: use for a communication, we have three to thirty hurts. 309 00:18:56,480 --> 00:18:59,520 Speaker 1: That means you would have three to thirty wavelengths of 310 00:18:59,560 --> 00:19:02,199 Speaker 1: a radio signal passing a given point in a second, 311 00:19:02,800 --> 00:19:05,920 Speaker 1: which at three hurts would mean that the wavelength would 312 00:19:05,960 --> 00:19:10,639 Speaker 1: be about one hundred thousand kilometers long. This is not 313 00:19:10,840 --> 00:19:14,560 Speaker 1: easy for us to generate because there's actually a relationship 314 00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:19,040 Speaker 1: between the length of our radio wave and the length 315 00:19:19,080 --> 00:19:21,919 Speaker 1: of an antenna that you need to generate it to 316 00:19:22,200 --> 00:19:26,080 Speaker 1: transmit that kind of wave. But these extremely low frequencies 317 00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:29,720 Speaker 1: have a benefit of being able to penetrate water so 318 00:19:29,920 --> 00:19:33,280 Speaker 1: it makes them useful for stuff like communicating with submarines 319 00:19:33,960 --> 00:19:37,480 Speaker 1: on the far end of the spectrum, on the opposite side, 320 00:19:37,960 --> 00:19:42,000 Speaker 1: we have three hundred giga hurts, meaning three hundred billion 321 00:19:42,240 --> 00:19:45,399 Speaker 1: wavelengths of a radio signal will pass a given point 322 00:19:45,400 --> 00:19:50,520 Speaker 1: in a second, which means each individual radio wave measures 323 00:19:50,640 --> 00:19:54,240 Speaker 1: one millimeter long. So what happens if you were to 324 00:19:54,320 --> 00:19:57,120 Speaker 1: keep going down the spectrum? What happens if you kept 325 00:19:57,160 --> 00:20:02,080 Speaker 1: on making the wavelengths shorter and making the frequencies higher, Well, 326 00:20:02,119 --> 00:20:05,800 Speaker 1: eventually you cross over into other types of electro magnetic energy, 327 00:20:06,160 --> 00:20:09,320 Speaker 1: including stuff like visible light. When you go far enough, 328 00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:11,879 Speaker 1: if you keep going, then you hit stuff like X 329 00:20:11,960 --> 00:20:16,440 Speaker 1: rays and gamma rays. Alright, so the five G wireless 330 00:20:16,440 --> 00:20:19,440 Speaker 1: frequencies fall into a couple of broad groups, and one 331 00:20:19,480 --> 00:20:22,880 Speaker 1: of those two we can even split into two subgroups. 332 00:20:22,920 --> 00:20:25,560 Speaker 1: So on the low end of the scale, which is 333 00:20:26,080 --> 00:20:30,120 Speaker 1: often called the sub six giga hurts, we've got the 334 00:20:30,160 --> 00:20:32,560 Speaker 1: low end at six hundred mega hurts. That means six 335 00:20:32,640 --> 00:20:35,959 Speaker 1: hundred million wavelengths would pass a given point per second, 336 00:20:36,760 --> 00:20:39,199 Speaker 1: and all the way up to six giga hurts or 337 00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:42,920 Speaker 1: six billion wavelengths past a point in a second. Now, 338 00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:46,119 Speaker 1: keep in mind that the whole range is not exclusive 339 00:20:46,160 --> 00:20:49,960 Speaker 1: to five G, just chunks of that range are in 340 00:20:50,119 --> 00:20:52,879 Speaker 1: five G. For example, there's actually a pretty big gap 341 00:20:53,040 --> 00:20:56,280 Speaker 1: between twenty six hundred mega hurts and thirty five hundred 342 00:20:56,320 --> 00:21:00,480 Speaker 1: mega hurts. These frequencies represent the low band and mid 343 00:21:00,520 --> 00:21:04,280 Speaker 1: band ranges of five G frequencies. Those would be those 344 00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:07,600 Speaker 1: two subgroups I mentioned earlier, low band being the lower 345 00:21:07,600 --> 00:21:10,600 Speaker 1: group of frequencies in that chunk, and mid band being 346 00:21:10,800 --> 00:21:14,439 Speaker 1: in the higher band of frequencies in that chunk. But 347 00:21:14,560 --> 00:21:18,440 Speaker 1: we've got a second chunk which consists of much higher frequencies, 348 00:21:18,440 --> 00:21:21,280 Speaker 1: starting at twenty six giga hurts and ending in the 349 00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:24,280 Speaker 1: fifty giga hurts range. And again five G does not 350 00:21:24,400 --> 00:21:28,639 Speaker 1: take up all the frequencies within this range, but chunks 351 00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:31,159 Speaker 1: of them or sub sections of them. And this is 352 00:21:31,200 --> 00:21:34,240 Speaker 1: the high band range of frequencies. So we've got the 353 00:21:34,320 --> 00:21:37,879 Speaker 1: low band, the mid band, and the high band range 354 00:21:37,880 --> 00:21:41,560 Speaker 1: of five G. Now it's that high band frequency range 355 00:21:42,080 --> 00:21:46,680 Speaker 1: that the marketing divisions of various carrier companies have really 356 00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:50,960 Speaker 1: focused on because it represents the biggest potential impact on consumers. 357 00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:55,080 Speaker 1: Assuming a robust rollout of five G infrastructure and some 358 00:21:55,280 --> 00:22:00,440 Speaker 1: special situations. It's in that high band frequent sees where 359 00:22:00,480 --> 00:22:04,879 Speaker 1: we see incredible data throughput. One of a T and 360 00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:08,720 Speaker 1: T S tests of its five G high band technology 361 00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:12,919 Speaker 1: showed a bandwidth of one point two gigabits per second. 362 00:22:13,480 --> 00:22:15,479 Speaker 1: That's a similar speed to what you would find with 363 00:22:15,560 --> 00:22:21,040 Speaker 1: a fiber optic connection. So wicked fast data transfer speeds. 364 00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:24,000 Speaker 1: That's incredible, right. You would be able to download videos 365 00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:26,200 Speaker 1: to your phone in a blink of an eye. If 366 00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:29,160 Speaker 1: you had a five G antenna connected to your home router, 367 00:22:29,720 --> 00:22:33,560 Speaker 1: then you can use five G to be a substitute 368 00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:37,159 Speaker 1: for a fiber optic line direct to your home. You 369 00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:40,280 Speaker 1: could even download those massive PS five and Xbox Series 370 00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:43,120 Speaker 1: X games in just a minute or two. But at 371 00:22:43,160 --> 00:22:45,960 Speaker 1: the lower range of frequencies, you know, the stuff that's 372 00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:48,679 Speaker 1: in the low to mid band ranges of five G, 373 00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:53,640 Speaker 1: those are not as impressive when it comes to data throughput. 374 00:22:54,359 --> 00:22:56,760 Speaker 1: You wouldn't be able to hit that kind of bandwidth. 375 00:22:56,760 --> 00:22:58,639 Speaker 1: The speeds you would get at those ranges would be 376 00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:01,680 Speaker 1: closer to what you see with lt E a K 377 00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:05,080 Speaker 1: four G speeds. Uh, the low band would be a 378 00:23:05,119 --> 00:23:08,520 Speaker 1: little faster than four G. The mid band can be 379 00:23:08,600 --> 00:23:12,640 Speaker 1: significantly faster, just not nearly as fast as the high 380 00:23:12,680 --> 00:23:16,119 Speaker 1: band stuff. And let's think about how we use radio 381 00:23:16,160 --> 00:23:18,600 Speaker 1: waves to send information to kind of understand what's going 382 00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:22,359 Speaker 1: on here. A radio wave on its own that is 383 00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:27,040 Speaker 1: a just a steady radio frequency, that's not terribly useful 384 00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:31,640 Speaker 1: if we want to convey any information, right, Like, imagine 385 00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:34,120 Speaker 1: you're seeing down to have a conversation with someone like me, 386 00:23:34,760 --> 00:23:36,720 Speaker 1: and let's just say that I just make a noise 387 00:23:36,720 --> 00:23:44,920 Speaker 1: like this. Uh, that's not really helpful, right, I mean, 388 00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:46,800 Speaker 1: some of my critics would say they could barely tell 389 00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:50,439 Speaker 1: the difference between that and one of my episodes. Words 390 00:23:50,480 --> 00:23:55,359 Speaker 1: can hurt, But anyway, without me modulating that sound, without 391 00:23:55,440 --> 00:23:59,520 Speaker 1: making the phonemes associated with the language, all I'm really 392 00:23:59,560 --> 00:24:02,000 Speaker 1: able to do with a simple tone like that is 393 00:24:02,040 --> 00:24:05,679 Speaker 1: to indicate that you know, I'm here, I'm around. So 394 00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:08,160 Speaker 1: I'm able to make that tone, but that's really it. 395 00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:12,800 Speaker 1: So to communicate, I have to take that tone, that signal, 396 00:24:13,280 --> 00:24:16,199 Speaker 1: and I need to alter it in some way. I 397 00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:20,840 Speaker 1: could increase the pitch or the frequency. I might change 398 00:24:20,880 --> 00:24:24,199 Speaker 1: the volume of it or the amplitude in order to 399 00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:27,040 Speaker 1: distress something. And I can chop up that sound in 400 00:24:27,119 --> 00:24:30,720 Speaker 1: lots of ways encoding information that you decode. You hear 401 00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:34,680 Speaker 1: the sound, your brain interprets the sound, and you make 402 00:24:34,880 --> 00:24:38,480 Speaker 1: meaning from it, which is really cool. Well, radio waves 403 00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:41,639 Speaker 1: are kind of similar. We take a radio signal of 404 00:24:41,640 --> 00:24:45,760 Speaker 1: a particular frequency, that is our carrier signal, and then 405 00:24:45,800 --> 00:24:49,320 Speaker 1: we have a channel of signals, and we change that 406 00:24:49,400 --> 00:24:53,920 Speaker 1: channel of signals in little ways to have that carry information. 407 00:24:54,240 --> 00:24:58,160 Speaker 1: So we can change the amplitude that's what AM radio does. 408 00:24:58,600 --> 00:25:02,280 Speaker 1: AM stands for amplitude modulation, Or we could change the 409 00:25:02,359 --> 00:25:05,520 Speaker 1: frequency a little bit, that's what FM radio does. That's 410 00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:10,440 Speaker 1: frequency modulation, and we could encode information onto the radio 411 00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:14,520 Speaker 1: waves themselves that way. Then an antenna of an appropriately 412 00:25:14,600 --> 00:25:17,720 Speaker 1: tuned receiver can pick up that radio signal and with 413 00:25:17,800 --> 00:25:21,120 Speaker 1: a decoder, it can change the information back into a 414 00:25:21,119 --> 00:25:24,040 Speaker 1: form that's useful to us, which is pretty nifty. Now, 415 00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:27,360 Speaker 1: when we get to wireless communications beyond basic radio signals, 416 00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:31,119 Speaker 1: we are talking about channels. Here. That carrier signal is 417 00:25:31,160 --> 00:25:35,919 Speaker 1: really the foundation to transmit information. But with a channel, 418 00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:39,200 Speaker 1: we're actually talking about a band of frequencies that are 419 00:25:39,240 --> 00:25:43,399 Speaker 1: in some way around this carrier signal, and the size 420 00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:46,560 Speaker 1: of that channel would be the bandwidth that determines how 421 00:25:46,680 --> 00:25:51,080 Speaker 1: much information that signal can carry, though the encoding process 422 00:25:51,119 --> 00:25:53,160 Speaker 1: also plays a big part in this, but we don't 423 00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:58,000 Speaker 1: want to get too deep into encoding. That gets really complicated. 424 00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:01,120 Speaker 1: So let's use a very simple example. Let's say you've 425 00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:04,520 Speaker 1: got a carrier signal at six hundred mega hurts and 426 00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:09,159 Speaker 1: the channel frequency is too mega hurts. What that means 427 00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:13,159 Speaker 1: is that you actually have a two mega hurts space 428 00:26:13,240 --> 00:26:15,960 Speaker 1: around six hundred. So a simple way of doing this 429 00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:20,200 Speaker 1: would be to say that from five to six hundred 430 00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:22,879 Speaker 1: and one mega hurts, that's where the channel sits, and 431 00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:25,439 Speaker 1: six hundred is right smack dab in the middle, and 432 00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:29,600 Speaker 1: it's that that channel with that gives you your data 433 00:26:29,680 --> 00:26:34,160 Speaker 1: carrying capacity. Now let's get into that spectral efficiency thing 434 00:26:34,240 --> 00:26:36,680 Speaker 1: that I mentioned earlier in this episode. It's a good 435 00:26:36,680 --> 00:26:40,280 Speaker 1: time to sort of explain what that actually means. And first, 436 00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:42,960 Speaker 1: here's what it doesn't mean. I was very sad to 437 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:46,200 Speaker 1: discover that spectral efficiency has nothing to do with how 438 00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:50,560 Speaker 1: effective ghosts are at haunting someplace. I mean, come on, 439 00:26:50,600 --> 00:26:53,679 Speaker 1: that's where my mind went. But ghosts aren't real, So 440 00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:55,600 Speaker 1: I guess that's a strike against that idea. In the 441 00:26:55,600 --> 00:26:59,400 Speaker 1: first place. So spectral efficiency has to do with how 442 00:26:59,520 --> 00:27:05,200 Speaker 1: much information can fit into a given channel bandwidth, how 443 00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:08,360 Speaker 1: well can that part of the radio spectrum that that 444 00:27:08,520 --> 00:27:14,080 Speaker 1: channel transmit information? How effective is it and carrying info well. 445 00:27:14,119 --> 00:27:17,439 Speaker 1: Spectral efficiency tells us more about how much information we 446 00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:21,120 Speaker 1: can encode onto a given frequency channel. We typically talk 447 00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:24,440 Speaker 1: about in terms of the number of bits per second 448 00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:29,000 Speaker 1: per hurts. So it's a net data rate per second 449 00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:33,520 Speaker 1: or bits per second divided by the channel bandwidth and hurts. 450 00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:36,960 Speaker 1: And again we're not talking about the specific radio frequency here, 451 00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:39,840 Speaker 1: so we wouldn't be saying six hundred mega hurts. We're 452 00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:43,960 Speaker 1: talking about how wide is that channel? How wide does 453 00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:48,440 Speaker 1: that bandwidth? And that can be anywhere on the radio frequency, 454 00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:51,840 Speaker 1: So how big is the range of frequencies within that channel. 455 00:27:51,880 --> 00:27:56,240 Speaker 1: Wider channels can carry more information, kind of like if 456 00:27:56,240 --> 00:27:59,359 Speaker 1: you have a highway that has more lanes, more cars 457 00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:02,399 Speaker 1: can fit on that span of highway at a single time. 458 00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:05,720 Speaker 1: So while the base frequency for a five G connection 459 00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:08,880 Speaker 1: might be six center mega hurts, the channel with could 460 00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:11,960 Speaker 1: be anything. Let's say that it could be like thirty 461 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:15,600 Speaker 1: mega hurts. Well, that's what we're concerned with the channel 462 00:28:15,640 --> 00:28:19,280 Speaker 1: with the thirty mega hurts, not what frequency it's actually 463 00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:24,080 Speaker 1: transmitted on. That doesn't really matter. Let's take an example 464 00:28:24,119 --> 00:28:27,600 Speaker 1: to really understand this. I pulled this example, by the way, 465 00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:30,679 Speaker 1: from tech play on dot com. They actually have a 466 00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:34,480 Speaker 1: really useful rundown on what spectral efficiency is, and in 467 00:28:34,520 --> 00:28:37,560 Speaker 1: their example, we have the following. We've got a fifteen 468 00:28:37,560 --> 00:28:41,880 Speaker 1: megabits per second raw data rate on a channel bandwidth, 469 00:28:42,360 --> 00:28:46,480 Speaker 1: and the channel bandwidth is two mega hurts. Now, that 470 00:28:46,680 --> 00:28:49,520 Speaker 1: raw data rate is not what a user would actually 471 00:28:49,760 --> 00:28:51,920 Speaker 1: get to take advantage of for the purposes of doing 472 00:28:51,960 --> 00:28:55,440 Speaker 1: something like download a file, because you have to have 473 00:28:55,640 --> 00:28:59,080 Speaker 1: a certain amount of the bandwidth reserved for what's called overhead, 474 00:28:59,520 --> 00:29:02,480 Speaker 1: just you know, have things work. So in this case, 475 00:29:03,120 --> 00:29:06,960 Speaker 1: this particular approach reserves two megabits per second as overhead, 476 00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:10,200 Speaker 1: so really you only have access to thirteen megabits per second. 477 00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:13,520 Speaker 1: If this sounds familiar to you, you're probably thinking about 478 00:29:13,520 --> 00:29:16,360 Speaker 1: things like storage space. You'll be told like a hard 479 00:29:16,480 --> 00:29:19,200 Speaker 1: drive can hold a terabyte of information, but it turns 480 00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:22,800 Speaker 1: out it's more like eight hundred gigabytes of information. Same 481 00:29:22,800 --> 00:29:27,280 Speaker 1: sort of thing. So in this particular example, using the 482 00:29:27,360 --> 00:29:29,960 Speaker 1: bits per second per hurts, we would say we've got 483 00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:33,720 Speaker 1: thirteen megabits per second, which would be thirteen million bits 484 00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:35,960 Speaker 1: per second, and then we would have to divide that 485 00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:39,120 Speaker 1: by two mega hurts or two million hurts. That would 486 00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:42,640 Speaker 1: give us six point five bits per second per hurts, 487 00:29:42,640 --> 00:29:47,280 Speaker 1: which describes the spectral efficiency of this hypothetical signal. Now, 488 00:29:47,320 --> 00:29:50,600 Speaker 1: remember we were talking about a channel with a width 489 00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:52,520 Speaker 1: of two mega hurts, and I didn't talk about the 490 00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:55,880 Speaker 1: actual frequency of the signal because that's not important. If 491 00:29:55,920 --> 00:30:01,040 Speaker 1: the if the frequency was twenty six hundred mega hurts 492 00:30:01,080 --> 00:30:03,760 Speaker 1: and not six center mega hurts, it would still be 493 00:30:03,840 --> 00:30:08,000 Speaker 1: the same amount of information being carried on this signal, 494 00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:11,800 Speaker 1: because again it's the channel width that range of frequencies 495 00:30:11,840 --> 00:30:14,960 Speaker 1: that's what's important. How why does that channel how much 496 00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:18,960 Speaker 1: capacity are we talking about here to hold data, not 497 00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:22,680 Speaker 1: the frequency of the carrier signal. So in the lower 498 00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:26,760 Speaker 1: group of frequencies for five G, the channel width is narrower, 499 00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:30,320 Speaker 1: with most of them being around forty mega hurts wide 500 00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:33,760 Speaker 1: or or smaller. Uh, there's lots of other stuff that's 501 00:30:33,800 --> 00:30:39,120 Speaker 1: taking up bands of frequencies around this range. So in 502 00:30:39,160 --> 00:30:42,120 Speaker 1: other words, you need to have enough channels so that 503 00:30:42,200 --> 00:30:45,200 Speaker 1: all the different carriers can operate without them interfering with 504 00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:49,120 Speaker 1: each other. But they can't be too wide because you 505 00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:52,640 Speaker 1: you've got to reserve some of that radio frequency space 506 00:30:52,760 --> 00:30:57,080 Speaker 1: for other stuff. So by necessity, there's a limit to 507 00:30:57,160 --> 00:30:59,480 Speaker 1: how wide those channels can get, which means there's a 508 00:30:59,560 --> 00:31:03,640 Speaker 1: limit to how much information they can carry. Uh. When 509 00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:06,880 Speaker 1: you start getting further up in the frequencies, there's a 510 00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:10,480 Speaker 1: little more room to work with, so the channels can 511 00:31:10,560 --> 00:31:15,400 Speaker 1: be more wide or wider at those higher frequencies, with 512 00:31:15,920 --> 00:31:18,360 Speaker 1: channels that are a hundred mega hurts wide, so they 513 00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:22,200 Speaker 1: can actually carry more information per second. There's a lot 514 00:31:22,280 --> 00:31:24,680 Speaker 1: more to it than all of this, but it if 515 00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:29,320 Speaker 1: you think it's complicated now, it gets really Matthew after that, 516 00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:31,760 Speaker 1: and I'm worried that I would not explain it properly. 517 00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:35,040 Speaker 1: So rather than make things more confusing, let's leave off 518 00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:38,360 Speaker 1: with the understanding that the low and mid band five 519 00:31:38,440 --> 00:31:43,800 Speaker 1: gen networks will offer modest, too good improvements in wireless 520 00:31:43,880 --> 00:31:48,520 Speaker 1: data speeds, but nothing approaching fiber optics speeds. The high 521 00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:52,120 Speaker 1: band can hit fiber optics speeds, So that leads you 522 00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:54,320 Speaker 1: to a question, why wouldn't you just go all in 523 00:31:54,400 --> 00:31:56,920 Speaker 1: with the high band? Why would you even bother with 524 00:31:57,080 --> 00:31:59,600 Speaker 1: low band or mid band. Well, there are a couple 525 00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:02,760 Speaker 1: of answers that question. One of them is that the 526 00:32:02,840 --> 00:32:07,200 Speaker 1: transmission range for those higher frequencies is much shorter than 527 00:32:07,280 --> 00:32:10,200 Speaker 1: for the low and midband frequencies. And we're talking about 528 00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:14,080 Speaker 1: like a thousand feet or less from the transmission tower, 529 00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:17,920 Speaker 1: which means you would need high band five G antennas 530 00:32:18,680 --> 00:32:23,479 Speaker 1: everywhere to provide comprehensive coverage. If you didn't, well, you 531 00:32:23,800 --> 00:32:26,000 Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to take advantage of those super fast 532 00:32:26,040 --> 00:32:29,320 Speaker 1: speeds at any place within a given region. Like you 533 00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:31,840 Speaker 1: might only be able to hit it at a specific 534 00:32:31,880 --> 00:32:34,920 Speaker 1: street corner, but if you go a block in any direction, 535 00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:39,160 Speaker 1: suddenly that connection just drops on top of the limited range. 536 00:32:39,360 --> 00:32:43,760 Speaker 1: The higher frequencies have really poor penetration, so it's hard 537 00:32:43,800 --> 00:32:47,280 Speaker 1: for them to get to pass through stuff like walls 538 00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:50,760 Speaker 1: or you know, foliage. So if you've got a wall 539 00:32:50,800 --> 00:32:53,120 Speaker 1: between you and a transmitter, or you know you're just 540 00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:56,800 Speaker 1: in a you know, wooded area inside a park, let's 541 00:32:56,800 --> 00:32:58,960 Speaker 1: say at a city, you might not be able to 542 00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:03,160 Speaker 1: get a very good, saynal from those high band transmitters, 543 00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:06,040 Speaker 1: so you wouldn't be able to take advantage of those 544 00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:10,000 Speaker 1: those speeds, the low and midband frequencies at five G, 545 00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:14,360 Speaker 1: they have better range and they have better penetration, so 546 00:33:14,680 --> 00:33:18,200 Speaker 1: you don't need as many antennas for low range or 547 00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:21,720 Speaker 1: low band and mid band frequencies. Uh. And when you 548 00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:25,040 Speaker 1: have them, you can actually have people still get a 549 00:33:25,080 --> 00:33:27,959 Speaker 1: signal if they were to be inside, assuming you're not 550 00:33:28,160 --> 00:33:31,280 Speaker 1: too far away from whatever the closest transmitters are. So 551 00:33:31,440 --> 00:33:34,000 Speaker 1: the high band five G transmitters will provide the most 552 00:33:34,040 --> 00:33:38,320 Speaker 1: incredible jumps and performance, but the availability of the signal 553 00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:42,920 Speaker 1: will be relatively low. The low band stuff will provide 554 00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:46,880 Speaker 1: a you know, a modest improvement over four G speeds, 555 00:33:46,920 --> 00:33:50,360 Speaker 1: but it could be available pretty much everywhere with just 556 00:33:51,040 --> 00:33:54,640 Speaker 1: a relatively few number of cell towers. Compared to the 557 00:33:54,720 --> 00:33:57,280 Speaker 1: high band stuff, that mid band is kind of in 558 00:33:57,320 --> 00:34:00,440 Speaker 1: the sweet spot. Uh. Your typical data speed would be 559 00:34:00,480 --> 00:34:03,520 Speaker 1: greater than what we see with four G by you know, 560 00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:06,160 Speaker 1: a decent amount, but it wouldn't be as impressive as 561 00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:09,799 Speaker 1: that high band range where you're getting the gigabit per 562 00:34:09,840 --> 00:34:13,920 Speaker 1: second speeds. Anyway, based on a lot of the marketing 563 00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:17,920 Speaker 1: for five G, you would never know that the speeds 564 00:34:17,920 --> 00:34:20,759 Speaker 1: they talk about are something you would only experience if 565 00:34:20,800 --> 00:34:25,120 Speaker 1: you happen to be in a transmitter dense environment and 566 00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:28,040 Speaker 1: outdoors to boot. It's the sort of thing you might 567 00:34:28,080 --> 00:34:32,080 Speaker 1: experience if you are in a dense urban setting, you know, 568 00:34:32,120 --> 00:34:34,440 Speaker 1: a city that has enough people in it to justify 569 00:34:34,520 --> 00:34:38,560 Speaker 1: the expense of rolling out a high band five G 570 00:34:38,800 --> 00:34:42,200 Speaker 1: infrastructure all over the ding dang during place. And if 571 00:34:42,239 --> 00:34:46,000 Speaker 1: you have a building between you and the closest transmitter, 572 00:34:46,400 --> 00:34:49,200 Speaker 1: you're not likely to get a good signal. So the 573 00:34:49,280 --> 00:34:54,160 Speaker 1: reality of five G is a little less exciting than 574 00:34:54,239 --> 00:34:58,520 Speaker 1: the marketing materials would necessarily have us believe. Though, if 575 00:34:58,520 --> 00:35:00,759 Speaker 1: you do happen to find yourself in the situation where 576 00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:03,640 Speaker 1: you've got a clear line of sight on a high 577 00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:07,279 Speaker 1: band five G transmitter, like let's say that for some 578 00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:10,080 Speaker 1: reason they build one that happens to be like a 579 00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:13,319 Speaker 1: bee line right into your living room, Well you've got 580 00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:17,600 Speaker 1: you're gonna have blazing fast wireless communication connections in that case, 581 00:35:17,640 --> 00:35:21,799 Speaker 1: if you've got compatible technologies to use with it. That's 582 00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:24,879 Speaker 1: also why, again five companies are talking about using five 583 00:35:24,920 --> 00:35:28,760 Speaker 1: G as a replacement for stuff like fiber connections to homes, 584 00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:32,800 Speaker 1: because it's way easier to provide that kind of speed 585 00:35:33,160 --> 00:35:36,880 Speaker 1: to a home if the home has an antenna. And 586 00:35:37,480 --> 00:35:41,280 Speaker 1: that's because, with very few exceptions, homes don't move around 587 00:35:41,920 --> 00:35:45,239 Speaker 1: very much. So you can establish a line of sight 588 00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:49,520 Speaker 1: between a home antenna and a transmission antenna and you 589 00:35:49,520 --> 00:35:51,920 Speaker 1: can be fairly sure that's not going to change over time. 590 00:35:52,320 --> 00:35:55,080 Speaker 1: But people with a cell phone, you know, people move 591 00:35:55,080 --> 00:36:00,759 Speaker 1: around a lot the jerks. Alright, So five speeds have 592 00:36:00,800 --> 00:36:04,080 Speaker 1: the potential to give us access to incredible data transfer 593 00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:07,839 Speaker 1: speeds under certain circumstances, but otherwise we'll see a more 594 00:36:07,960 --> 00:36:11,200 Speaker 1: modest improvement over what we have today. When we come back, 595 00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:15,360 Speaker 1: we'll talk about some of the conspiracies and misconceptions around 596 00:36:15,360 --> 00:36:25,839 Speaker 1: five G. But first let's take another quick break. When 597 00:36:25,840 --> 00:36:30,560 Speaker 1: it comes to misinformation, misunderstanding, and misrepresentation, I am not 598 00:36:30,680 --> 00:36:35,040 Speaker 1: sure I have seen another technology as prone to that 599 00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:38,160 Speaker 1: kind of stuff. Is five G at least not a 600 00:36:38,239 --> 00:36:41,680 Speaker 1: legitimate technology. There are a lot of hoaxes out there. 601 00:36:42,200 --> 00:36:44,480 Speaker 1: They could probably give five G a run for its money, 602 00:36:44,920 --> 00:36:49,040 Speaker 1: but you know, that's a that's a different kettle of fish. 603 00:36:49,120 --> 00:36:52,000 Speaker 1: Some of this comes down to marketing, and as I've 604 00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:56,080 Speaker 1: already mentioned, that is a big issue. Companies pushing five 605 00:36:56,160 --> 00:36:59,759 Speaker 1: G like it's a fiber optic connection wherever you might be. 606 00:37:00,280 --> 00:37:05,440 Speaker 1: That's misleading, it's not really accurate. Given the range and 607 00:37:05,520 --> 00:37:10,200 Speaker 1: penetration limitations of millimeter wave five G transmissions, that high 608 00:37:10,239 --> 00:37:13,160 Speaker 1: band we were talking about, you're just not likely to 609 00:37:13,200 --> 00:37:17,160 Speaker 1: experience those speeds unless you're in a city that you 610 00:37:17,239 --> 00:37:20,000 Speaker 1: happen to be outside, and you are close to one 611 00:37:20,080 --> 00:37:23,440 Speaker 1: of those transmitters, and you've got a compatible device that 612 00:37:23,719 --> 00:37:26,720 Speaker 1: runs on the network that happens to be in that area. 613 00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:31,400 Speaker 1: This is what we would call conditional love. It's really 614 00:37:31,719 --> 00:37:35,080 Speaker 1: really conditional. Now that's not to say that low and 615 00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:38,160 Speaker 1: mid range five G speeds will be bad. They won't 616 00:37:38,200 --> 00:37:40,000 Speaker 1: be bad. They'll be good. They just won't be as 617 00:37:40,040 --> 00:37:44,600 Speaker 1: transformational as the advertising would have you think. But there 618 00:37:44,600 --> 00:37:47,920 Speaker 1: are other complications here. For example, A T and T 619 00:37:48,160 --> 00:37:54,400 Speaker 1: S five G E. Why all right, this one is 620 00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:58,160 Speaker 1: hard for me to cover without getting snarky about it, 621 00:37:58,239 --> 00:38:00,400 Speaker 1: because it's very hard for me to see how this 622 00:38:00,480 --> 00:38:05,640 Speaker 1: is anything other than misinformation. But let's cover what actually happened. 623 00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:09,320 Speaker 1: So back in early twenty nineteen, some A, T and 624 00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:12,960 Speaker 1: D customers saw an interesting icon pop up on their phones, 625 00:38:13,440 --> 00:38:17,600 Speaker 1: and the icon said five G E and These were 626 00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:21,040 Speaker 1: the very same phones that one day earlier were humble 627 00:38:21,239 --> 00:38:25,440 Speaker 1: four G phones LTE phones, and overnight, boom, they go 628 00:38:25,520 --> 00:38:28,680 Speaker 1: to five G, which is incredible. How did that happen? Well, 629 00:38:29,239 --> 00:38:32,480 Speaker 1: it happened by not happening. See, I didn't go five 630 00:38:32,560 --> 00:38:36,920 Speaker 1: gen because five G E or five G evolution is 631 00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:40,160 Speaker 1: what a T and T calls four G L T E. 632 00:38:40,600 --> 00:38:43,640 Speaker 1: Now granted it is four G L T E with 633 00:38:43,800 --> 00:38:48,279 Speaker 1: the late generation advances like the four by four M 634 00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:51,040 Speaker 1: I M O and T five six Q A M 635 00:38:51,120 --> 00:38:53,600 Speaker 1: and No, I'm not going to explain these things because 636 00:38:53,600 --> 00:38:57,400 Speaker 1: it would take another episode to do it. The important 637 00:38:57,440 --> 00:39:00,520 Speaker 1: thing to know is that these were advanced as were made, 638 00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:03,160 Speaker 1: and how we take advantage of four G networks, how 639 00:39:03,200 --> 00:39:08,920 Speaker 1: we encode information to transmit across four G technology, which 640 00:39:09,120 --> 00:39:13,560 Speaker 1: allowed for better connectivity and faster data transfer rates. So 641 00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:17,560 Speaker 1: this is that late stage generational stuff that I alluded 642 00:39:17,560 --> 00:39:20,359 Speaker 1: to at the beginning of this episode. It's what we 643 00:39:20,360 --> 00:39:24,040 Speaker 1: were seeing with the four G networks. And in fact, 644 00:39:24,400 --> 00:39:27,400 Speaker 1: T Mobile had rolled out the same sort of technology 645 00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:31,680 Speaker 1: and its networks three years earlier, and T Mobile was 646 00:39:31,680 --> 00:39:34,880 Speaker 1: still calling it four G because you know, it was 647 00:39:35,200 --> 00:39:37,719 Speaker 1: it was good for G but it was still four G, 648 00:39:38,400 --> 00:39:41,080 Speaker 1: but A T and T was marketing it as five 649 00:39:41,239 --> 00:39:46,040 Speaker 1: G E, and the company understandably became the target of criticism, 650 00:39:46,120 --> 00:39:51,480 Speaker 1: largely from other carriers, and T Mobile was chief among them. 651 00:39:51,560 --> 00:39:54,080 Speaker 1: It took more than a year of pressure, but T 652 00:39:54,280 --> 00:39:58,759 Speaker 1: Mobile had turned to the National Advertising Division to protest 653 00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:01,000 Speaker 1: that A T. T was using five G as a 654 00:40:01,040 --> 00:40:05,680 Speaker 1: marketing tool when it wasn't actually using five G technologies, 655 00:40:06,120 --> 00:40:09,600 Speaker 1: and T Mobile's claim was that this amounts to false advertising. 656 00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:13,000 Speaker 1: So the National Advertising Division told A T and T 657 00:40:13,160 --> 00:40:17,720 Speaker 1: to knock that stuff off, and after appealing this decision 658 00:40:17,800 --> 00:40:21,080 Speaker 1: and then being shot down, A T and T agreed 659 00:40:21,360 --> 00:40:25,320 Speaker 1: to no longer use five G E and its advertising 660 00:40:25,480 --> 00:40:28,759 Speaker 1: and marketing in twenty twenty, though the five G E 661 00:40:29,120 --> 00:40:33,880 Speaker 1: icon still appears on customers phones using four G LTE networks. 662 00:40:34,520 --> 00:40:37,200 Speaker 1: Uh that being said, A T and T also has 663 00:40:37,560 --> 00:40:41,719 Speaker 1: legit five G handsets and five G infrastructure in some places, 664 00:40:42,200 --> 00:40:44,080 Speaker 1: So if you have a phone on A T and 665 00:40:44,160 --> 00:40:46,880 Speaker 1: T S low or mid band five G network and 666 00:40:46,960 --> 00:40:49,400 Speaker 1: you connect to one of those, it will say five G, 667 00:40:49,880 --> 00:40:53,000 Speaker 1: not five G E five G. If you connect to 668 00:40:53,040 --> 00:40:55,759 Speaker 1: a high band network, then you get the five G 669 00:40:56,040 --> 00:41:00,000 Speaker 1: plus icon. But even in the old LTE network you'll 670 00:41:00,040 --> 00:41:03,840 Speaker 1: c five G E even though it's four G technology. 671 00:41:03,960 --> 00:41:08,000 Speaker 1: Other companies didn't come out spotless in this whole endeavor either. 672 00:41:08,400 --> 00:41:12,240 Speaker 1: Verizon caught some major criticism after airing ads that said 673 00:41:12,239 --> 00:41:15,960 Speaker 1: five G technology would enable other big breakthroughs, such as 674 00:41:16,000 --> 00:41:21,000 Speaker 1: in medical treatments for cancer. Now that is just difficult 675 00:41:21,080 --> 00:41:24,439 Speaker 1: to back up. The low latency and the high data 676 00:41:24,480 --> 00:41:28,759 Speaker 1: throughput are helpful in a lot of applications, assuming you 677 00:41:28,800 --> 00:41:32,200 Speaker 1: can take advantage of mid band or preferably high band 678 00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:37,360 Speaker 1: five G frequencies. But faster transmission speeds and lower latency 679 00:41:37,760 --> 00:41:44,520 Speaker 1: don't magically make new technologies just appear. They can facilitate implementations, 680 00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:49,319 Speaker 1: but they don't make them just happen. So as a comparison, 681 00:41:49,680 --> 00:41:54,359 Speaker 1: faster computers doesn't immediately mean you're going to get better software. Right. 682 00:41:54,960 --> 00:41:58,319 Speaker 1: You can make a more sophisticated software of possibility by 683 00:41:58,480 --> 00:42:02,920 Speaker 1: creating faster computers, but it doesn't make it a certainty. Moreover, 684 00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:07,279 Speaker 1: for facilities like hospitals, in hospital networks are likely to 685 00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:10,400 Speaker 1: be robust enough without five G to give the speeds 686 00:42:10,400 --> 00:42:13,920 Speaker 1: and low latency that you need for stuff like telesurgery, 687 00:42:13,960 --> 00:42:17,120 Speaker 1: For example, Now you could argue that five G could 688 00:42:17,120 --> 00:42:22,600 Speaker 1: extend that capability beyond well funded hospitals, But then you're 689 00:42:22,680 --> 00:42:25,279 Speaker 1: left with the question of how likely is it that 690 00:42:25,560 --> 00:42:29,880 Speaker 1: a mobile carrier is going to build out its network 691 00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:34,000 Speaker 1: into regions that are either outside of dense urban centers 692 00:42:34,800 --> 00:42:38,600 Speaker 1: or outside of more privileged areas. In general, I mean, 693 00:42:38,920 --> 00:42:41,000 Speaker 1: the networks are going to be built to where the 694 00:42:41,080 --> 00:42:44,200 Speaker 1: customers are at a density that's high enough to justify 695 00:42:44,239 --> 00:42:47,080 Speaker 1: the expense. So I don't think it's really likely that 696 00:42:47,120 --> 00:42:51,320 Speaker 1: we're gonna see carriers building out five G network infrastructure 697 00:42:51,719 --> 00:42:55,279 Speaker 1: surrounding hospitals to give that, you know, one thousand feet 698 00:42:55,320 --> 00:42:58,480 Speaker 1: of coverage in every direction now, so you'd have to 699 00:42:58,480 --> 00:43:01,600 Speaker 1: build multiple and tan is around your typical hospital to 700 00:43:01,880 --> 00:43:05,480 Speaker 1: really cover it. And even then, the high band stuff 701 00:43:05,560 --> 00:43:08,120 Speaker 1: is not gonna penetrate the walls of the hospital, so 702 00:43:09,040 --> 00:43:12,640 Speaker 1: there's some limited use here. Then we have the political angle. 703 00:43:13,160 --> 00:43:15,880 Speaker 1: The tech powering five G comes from all over the place, 704 00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:19,799 Speaker 1: including China, and one of the big companies that is 705 00:43:19,880 --> 00:43:23,120 Speaker 1: involved with five G technology is Whawei. But there are 706 00:43:23,160 --> 00:43:27,000 Speaker 1: some concerns among some governments in the world that a 707 00:43:27,040 --> 00:43:32,400 Speaker 1: communications network built atop a Chinese companies technology would be 708 00:43:32,480 --> 00:43:37,360 Speaker 1: vulnerable to backdoor snooping from Chinese government officials. There's a 709 00:43:37,360 --> 00:43:41,120 Speaker 1: concern that could be genuine or it could be manufactured, 710 00:43:41,120 --> 00:43:44,960 Speaker 1: depending upon the case that a technology is critical as 711 00:43:45,040 --> 00:43:49,560 Speaker 1: a communications infrastructure, could be made vulnerable to bad actors 712 00:43:49,760 --> 00:43:53,840 Speaker 1: from official Chinese sources. And since China has a reputation 713 00:43:53,920 --> 00:43:57,440 Speaker 1: for doing stuff like encouraging hackers to infiltrate systems and 714 00:43:57,480 --> 00:44:03,400 Speaker 1: other nations, that could concern is understandable. On top of that, however, 715 00:44:03,880 --> 00:44:07,719 Speaker 1: do you also have complicating matters like the trade disputes 716 00:44:08,120 --> 00:44:10,880 Speaker 1: between China and the United States, You know, and in 717 00:44:10,920 --> 00:44:14,240 Speaker 1: recent years, President Trump has taken a pretty hard stance 718 00:44:14,360 --> 00:44:17,759 Speaker 1: against China and any chance of China playing a part 719 00:44:17,800 --> 00:44:21,000 Speaker 1: in building out five G networks within the United States. Now, 720 00:44:21,040 --> 00:44:24,960 Speaker 1: whether that is from a genuine concern about national security, 721 00:44:25,600 --> 00:44:28,279 Speaker 1: or it's more of a part of a bargaining strategy 722 00:44:28,280 --> 00:44:31,120 Speaker 1: in a trade war, or maybe it's a bit of both, 723 00:44:31,560 --> 00:44:35,120 Speaker 1: it's kind of hard to say. Honestly, I think that 724 00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:38,880 Speaker 1: caution is warranted, largely because I think the Chinese government 725 00:44:38,920 --> 00:44:42,560 Speaker 1: would be really tempted to persuade Huahwei to incorporate backdoors 726 00:44:43,080 --> 00:44:46,880 Speaker 1: in their systems to allow for data collection and surveillance. Now, 727 00:44:46,960 --> 00:44:49,520 Speaker 1: I probably would have shrugged that off a few years ago, 728 00:44:49,719 --> 00:44:53,680 Speaker 1: just because the amount of useless information you would be 729 00:44:53,800 --> 00:44:57,440 Speaker 1: pulling in would be enormous, so the signal to noise 730 00:44:57,520 --> 00:44:59,239 Speaker 1: ratio would be all out of whack. You would have 731 00:44:59,239 --> 00:45:01,759 Speaker 1: way too much no ways and too little signal. But 732 00:45:01,840 --> 00:45:04,799 Speaker 1: now we're in the era of big data analysis, and 733 00:45:04,840 --> 00:45:07,800 Speaker 1: I think it's harder to dismiss those concerns out of hand, 734 00:45:07,880 --> 00:45:11,520 Speaker 1: because we're getting better at finding the signal even in 735 00:45:11,600 --> 00:45:15,040 Speaker 1: massive amounts of noise, thanks to stuff like machine learning 736 00:45:15,200 --> 00:45:18,760 Speaker 1: and artificial intelligence. So I'm a little more cautious now. 737 00:45:19,080 --> 00:45:22,200 Speaker 1: And then we get to the conspiracy theories. Now, I 738 00:45:22,239 --> 00:45:25,759 Speaker 1: am not certain how these things get started. For some people, 739 00:45:25,800 --> 00:45:28,319 Speaker 1: it may just be a joke, uh, this idea that 740 00:45:28,400 --> 00:45:31,799 Speaker 1: you know, the wireless technology was creating health issues. With 741 00:45:32,000 --> 00:45:36,880 Speaker 1: more recent incidents, specifically attempting to link five G technology 742 00:45:36,960 --> 00:45:41,440 Speaker 1: with the spread of coronavirus. There's long been a belief 743 00:45:41,680 --> 00:45:47,120 Speaker 1: among some people that radio waves are somehow affecting them adversely, 744 00:45:47,440 --> 00:45:50,600 Speaker 1: even though there's not really any real scientific evidence to 745 00:45:50,719 --> 00:45:55,240 Speaker 1: show a means for how that would happen. Radio transmissions 746 00:45:55,280 --> 00:45:59,600 Speaker 1: don't have the same sort of of impact on us 747 00:45:59,640 --> 00:46:04,200 Speaker 1: that high energy electromagnetic radiation can have. You know, stuff 748 00:46:04,239 --> 00:46:07,279 Speaker 1: like in the X ray and gamma ray range. That 749 00:46:07,320 --> 00:46:10,480 Speaker 1: stuff can have a real effect on us. Radio waves 750 00:46:10,480 --> 00:46:13,920 Speaker 1: have not really been shown to do that. Um, if 751 00:46:13,960 --> 00:46:17,000 Speaker 1: you were to do double blind tests with these people, 752 00:46:17,040 --> 00:46:20,000 Speaker 1: at least the ones I've seen, the one the studies 753 00:46:20,040 --> 00:46:22,640 Speaker 1: I've read, they've used double blind tests don't really show 754 00:46:22,640 --> 00:46:27,480 Speaker 1: any proof that anything is really happening. A double blind, 755 00:46:27,520 --> 00:46:30,279 Speaker 1: by the way, is a test in which neither the 756 00:46:30,320 --> 00:46:34,280 Speaker 1: subject of the test or the person administering the test 757 00:46:34,840 --> 00:46:38,359 Speaker 1: knows if that subject is in a control group or not, 758 00:46:38,880 --> 00:46:42,719 Speaker 1: or under control conditions or not. Uh that way, the 759 00:46:42,760 --> 00:46:46,800 Speaker 1: person who's administering the test can't give any hints or 760 00:46:46,880 --> 00:46:50,120 Speaker 1: clues or indications to the subject about whether or not 761 00:46:51,000 --> 00:46:54,759 Speaker 1: the actual thing that's being tested is happening. So, in 762 00:46:54,800 --> 00:46:58,520 Speaker 1: the case of someone who's concerned about electromagnetic radiation, you 763 00:46:58,520 --> 00:47:03,719 Speaker 1: could design a test where an administrator takes the subject 764 00:47:03,719 --> 00:47:05,960 Speaker 1: to a room that may or may not have an 765 00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:10,160 Speaker 1: active radio transmitter of some sort inside that room, and 766 00:47:10,200 --> 00:47:13,239 Speaker 1: the person who's administering the test would also not know 767 00:47:13,680 --> 00:47:17,040 Speaker 1: if the antenna were active or if anything was happening 768 00:47:17,040 --> 00:47:19,520 Speaker 1: in that room, So they wouldn't be able to indicate 769 00:47:19,560 --> 00:47:22,960 Speaker 1: to the subject, Hey, you're going into a control room 770 00:47:22,960 --> 00:47:25,359 Speaker 1: where nothing's happening, or you're going into an actual test 771 00:47:25,440 --> 00:47:29,360 Speaker 1: room you're gonna get bombarded by radio waves. Neither party 772 00:47:29,400 --> 00:47:31,759 Speaker 1: would know, and it would only be after the test 773 00:47:31,880 --> 00:47:34,600 Speaker 1: was fully run and the results were looked at that 774 00:47:34,640 --> 00:47:37,759 Speaker 1: you would be able to see was there any connection 775 00:47:38,040 --> 00:47:40,839 Speaker 1: between when we were running a control and when we 776 00:47:40,840 --> 00:47:44,600 Speaker 1: were running an actual test and the supposed reactions from 777 00:47:44,600 --> 00:47:47,880 Speaker 1: the subject. As far as I've seen, none of that 778 00:47:48,040 --> 00:47:50,440 Speaker 1: is really paid off, Like it just doesn't show that 779 00:47:50,520 --> 00:47:56,000 Speaker 1: there's any actual causal link between radio waves and a 780 00:47:56,080 --> 00:48:02,200 Speaker 1: person's alleged symptoms or or actions to it. Getting back 781 00:48:02,239 --> 00:48:06,919 Speaker 1: to the conspiracies, it's possible that some people conflated five 782 00:48:07,000 --> 00:48:11,320 Speaker 1: G as being related to coronavirus because the reports were 783 00:48:11,360 --> 00:48:15,320 Speaker 1: that the earliest cases of coronavirus originated out of China, 784 00:48:15,440 --> 00:48:20,640 Speaker 1: and thus those people made some big leaps beyond logic 785 00:48:21,120 --> 00:48:25,120 Speaker 1: that coronavirus emerged from China. Chinese companies are involved with 786 00:48:25,160 --> 00:48:29,359 Speaker 1: creating five G technology. Therefore five G technologies somehow has 787 00:48:29,400 --> 00:48:32,759 Speaker 1: something to do with transmitting of virus. But I don't 788 00:48:32,760 --> 00:48:34,920 Speaker 1: think I need to spend any real time at all 789 00:48:34,960 --> 00:48:37,800 Speaker 1: pointing out how none of that really makes any sense. 790 00:48:38,080 --> 00:48:43,280 Speaker 1: There's no linking there. We've seen this escalate in some places, 791 00:48:43,400 --> 00:48:47,160 Speaker 1: including incidents of people setting fire to masks, that is, 792 00:48:47,200 --> 00:48:50,799 Speaker 1: the polls that hold up network equipment. We saw that 793 00:48:50,880 --> 00:48:54,120 Speaker 1: happen several times in the UK. Whether those fires were 794 00:48:54,120 --> 00:48:57,000 Speaker 1: started by people who genuinely believe that five G is 795 00:48:57,040 --> 00:49:01,680 Speaker 1: somehow transmitting a virus, which again is not possible, or 796 00:49:01,719 --> 00:49:05,279 Speaker 1: that the five G antenna's posed some other sort of 797 00:49:05,360 --> 00:49:08,520 Speaker 1: health hazard, or maybe they're just trying to stir up trouble, 798 00:49:08,760 --> 00:49:12,160 Speaker 1: I can't say, but I can say that physical damage 799 00:49:12,719 --> 00:49:16,000 Speaker 1: isn't something easy to defend when it comes to this 800 00:49:16,080 --> 00:49:19,600 Speaker 1: sort of thing. Maybe some of this links back to 801 00:49:19,760 --> 00:49:23,840 Speaker 1: technologies that are just so complex and so sophisticated that 802 00:49:23,920 --> 00:49:27,319 Speaker 1: they are beyond the understanding of the average person. I mean, 803 00:49:27,320 --> 00:49:30,200 Speaker 1: there's a famous saying I believe it is Arthur C. 804 00:49:30,200 --> 00:49:34,560 Speaker 1: Clarke who said that any technology that's sufficiently sophisticate enough 805 00:49:34,600 --> 00:49:38,359 Speaker 1: will be indistinguishable from magic. The idea being that if 806 00:49:38,360 --> 00:49:41,400 Speaker 1: it's so complicated that you cannot understand how it works. 807 00:49:42,000 --> 00:49:44,560 Speaker 1: You might as well be told it's magic. It will 808 00:49:44,560 --> 00:49:46,520 Speaker 1: make no difference to you because you won't be able 809 00:49:46,520 --> 00:49:49,960 Speaker 1: to understand it either way. And the fact is that 810 00:49:49,960 --> 00:49:53,280 Speaker 1: people want explanations. They want to be able to understand 811 00:49:53,320 --> 00:49:57,839 Speaker 1: why things are happening, and in the the lack of 812 00:49:57,880 --> 00:50:02,560 Speaker 1: an explanation, they might to conclusions that are not really supportable, 813 00:50:03,000 --> 00:50:05,759 Speaker 1: but they might be comforting because they offer up an 814 00:50:05,800 --> 00:50:08,520 Speaker 1: explanation for the thing that is happening in the world 815 00:50:08,560 --> 00:50:11,840 Speaker 1: around them. Um, it's a lot easier to take a 816 00:50:11,960 --> 00:50:15,319 Speaker 1: fake explanation and and accept that than to try and 817 00:50:15,440 --> 00:50:18,680 Speaker 1: understand the real explanations. In some cases you have to 818 00:50:18,719 --> 00:50:21,840 Speaker 1: do fewer Furrier transforms if you're talking about fake science, 819 00:50:21,840 --> 00:50:25,640 Speaker 1: for example, So that kind of wraps up what five 820 00:50:25,680 --> 00:50:29,920 Speaker 1: G is and what it isn't, and it is really confusing. 821 00:50:30,040 --> 00:50:32,759 Speaker 1: It's a It's easy to understand why people would get 822 00:50:33,680 --> 00:50:36,040 Speaker 1: kind of hung up on all this part of it, 823 00:50:36,120 --> 00:50:40,960 Speaker 1: because the marketing messages have been really pushing hard on 824 00:50:41,000 --> 00:50:43,160 Speaker 1: a narrative that I don't think is really going to 825 00:50:43,280 --> 00:50:45,480 Speaker 1: play out in the real world, at least not the 826 00:50:45,520 --> 00:50:50,120 Speaker 1: way the marketing makes it seem. Um. On the flip side. 827 00:50:50,480 --> 00:50:54,120 Speaker 1: We have people who are either just desperately looking for 828 00:50:54,160 --> 00:50:57,640 Speaker 1: answers or are looking to stir up trouble and thus 829 00:50:57,719 --> 00:51:01,920 Speaker 1: are spreading fake stories. So I get it, but I 830 00:51:01,960 --> 00:51:04,279 Speaker 1: wanted to try and clear things up as best I could. 831 00:51:04,360 --> 00:51:06,759 Speaker 1: I hope this was helpful. If you have suggestions for 832 00:51:06,840 --> 00:51:10,080 Speaker 1: future topics on tech stuff, whether it's a specific technology, 833 00:51:10,320 --> 00:51:13,279 Speaker 1: a company, a trend in tech, let me know, Send 834 00:51:13,280 --> 00:51:16,440 Speaker 1: me a message on Twitter handle this text stuff hs W, 835 00:51:17,080 --> 00:51:25,000 Speaker 1: and I'll talk to you again really soon. Text Stuff 836 00:51:25,080 --> 00:51:28,239 Speaker 1: is an I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from 837 00:51:28,280 --> 00:51:32,040 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 838 00:51:32,160 --> 00:51:34,160 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.