The Evolution of 5G: What's Happening Now?
Hey guys, this is Austin. After years of using 4G networks, 5G technology is finally starting to roll out. And with that, we should be able to see proper gigabit-class speeds. But if you own a flagship phone from the last couple of years, you might have noticed something strange - a 5G E logo.
So, have you been using a 5G phone this entire time without realizing it? No, like 4G before it, 5G is not as straightforward as it might seem. There are several competing 5G standards being built out right now. For example, here in LA, you can sign up for Verizon's 5G home service.
This is using an early version of 5G, which according to Verizon, is good for up to 20 times the speed of LTE. And in the real world, it delivers about 300 megabits per second down. Although theoretically, it can go up to 940 megabytes, completely wirelessly. That's actually pretty good.
And it shows how 5G can be used - not only for your phone and for your laptop and tablet, but also it can be used to completely replace a standard home internet line. Putting aside the fact that this isn't true 5G just yet, there is a ton of potential here.
The final 5G spec calls for a theoretical maximum of 20 gigabits per second. Although realistically, it's going to be much closer to one gigabit. But that is still a huge huge bump over what we have today.
Now, let's talk about 5G E. This is short for 5G Evolution and it is what AT&T is calling 5G. Although spoiler alert, it's not 5G. To give you a better idea of what 5G E is, we have a little bit of an example.
We'll call him 5G, as you can see he's very cheerful, he's very happy. All good, right? Well, this is Mimikyu. On the service looks very similar to Pikachu, except that he's really LTE with some weird drawings on his face. Clearly not the same thing.
Are you following? Maybe I should explain this little bit better. So if you take a look at the AT&T site, they describe 5G E as quote, “You have.” We'll get back to this later.
WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Hey guys, this is Austin.After years of using 4G,5G networks are just starting to roll out.And with that we should be able to seeproper gigabit-class speeds.But if you owned a flagshipin the last couple yearsyou might have noticedsomething strange, a 5G E logo.So, have you been using a 5G phonethis entire time without realizing it?Yeah, no.Like 4G before it, 5G is notas straightforward as it might seem.There are several competing 5G standardsbeing built out right now.For example, here in LA you can sign upfor Verizon's 5G home service.This is using an early version of 5G,which according to Verizon is goodfor up to 20 times the speed of LTE.And in the real world,delivers about 300megabits per second down.Although theoretically, it can go up to940 megabytes, completely wirelessly.That's actually pretty good.And it shows how 5G can beused, not only for your phoneand for your laptop and tablet,but also it can be usedto completely replacea standard home internet line.So putting aside for a secondthat this isn't true 5G just yet,there is a ton of potential here.The final 5G spec callsfor a theoretical maximumof 20 gigabits per second.Although realistically,it's going to be muchcloser to one gigabit.But that is still a huge hugebump over what we have today.That brings us to 5G E.Now this is short for 5G Evolutionand it is what AT&T is calling 5G.Although spoiler alert, it's not 5G.So to give you a betteridea of what 5G E is,we have a little bit of an example.So, this is Pikachu.And for this reference we'll call him 5G.As you can see, he's verycheery, he's very happy.All good, right?Well, this is Mimikyu.Now, on the service looksvery similar to Pikachu,except that he's really LTEwith some weird drawings on his face.Clearly not the same thing.Are you following?Maybe I should explainthis little bit better.So if you take a look at the AT&T site,they describe 5G E as quote,"The first step on the road to 5G."So it does support someadditional technologiesthat come with LTE Advanced.Such as four-by-four as well as somebetter streaming and better compression.But generally speaking, this is not 5Geven though they're slappingthat 5G badge all over it.And if this all sounds familiarthen you would be right.Back with AT&T wastransitioning from 3G to 4G,they sent out an update to their phonesto change the badge to say 4Gwhen it was actually still on 3G.Yeah, they're doing that one again.So based on all of this,it seems pretty clear to methat 5G E is not going to delivera true next-gen experience.But to be fair, I think it'stime to put it to the test.So let's see if we can actuallytrack down a 5G E phoneand see how it actually performs.That was fun.So, did not get a phone.But we got some interesting information.They did confirm that it does support 5G.So I think the main phoneI'm looking for is the V40.Everything that I've readup until now seems to showthat that actually is one of the phonesthat does show the 5G badge.Unfortunately the storedidn't get many V40sand they shipped them all backbecause they didn't sell them.Oh thank you, I appreciate it.So, we have an LG V40that supports full 5G E,at least I hope it does.Now, I have to put a SIM card in hereand hope that 5G shows upand I can actually testto see if it's any goodor whether I just spent $950on a phone that won't work.So, it is time to put aAT&T's 5G network to the test.So the first bottleneck isthat we actually might not have5G E service here at the office.I'm hopeful that we will butthey don't really exactlyhave a whole lot of information about it.So I'm gonna put a SIMcard in with actual data.All right, so it showswe're on AT&T on LTE,which is the correct thingbecause we should be on LTE.But I wanna see if thisactually will show us 5G E.This V40 does have an updatereleased on January 4th.Oh, excellent, here we go, what's new.5G Evolution indicator support added.Okay, so there is an update for the phonethat specifically changes theindicator to 5G Evolution.Now the question is, whydoesn't it wanna download?So we got the phone up to datebut unfortunately it still shows 4G LTE.Now, this should theoretically show 5G.The main issue is that there's not5G service here at the office.So the next step is to track down 5Gso we actually can test to see,even though it's probablygonna be the same.This isn't going to be a definitive test,but all I want to know is this.Does 5G E make any difference whatsoever?So after taking a closer lookat the 5G E coverage areas,one of the major spotsthat they do have listedis Los Angeles.So we're here in Hollywood to see exactlywhether or not this is going to work.Oh, oh, 5G E, we got it.I actually legitimately didnot think that was gonna work.So what's really interesting isif you look at the actual network page,what you'll see is eventhough it says 5G Eit still says LTE here becausethat's what it really is.I guess the first test isjust to see how fast it is.So, 4.6 down and 16 up.Hardly a gigabit like they had promised.Now on the other sideI have the iPhone 10R.Now this is a phone which actually islisted on AT&T's site as 5G E compatible.But if you take a look, Ihave four bars of LTE, not 5G.It's the same thing.But let's see if there'sactually a difference.Oh wow.(laughs breathlessly)Are you serious?(laughs breathlessly)Are you trying to tellme that 5G is slower?To be clear, thesephones are both on AT&T.There's no differencein any way, except thatthis one is like 10 timesfaster on the download.29, 31, 35.Are these settings the same?Now we've gotta try likeanother site or something.So because that seems very suspicious,I'm going to try thestandard Google Speed Testto just see what we get.All right, what have we got?Oh, there we go.Okay, that makes a lot more sense.We're seeing way faster speeds on 5G E,which makes sense if you think about it.The 10R has a two-by-two LTE antennaversus the four-by-fourantenna on the V40.Okay, let's do it one more time.Ready, set.There we go, yeah.It's consistently pulling ahead,this time actually by a lot more.So the iPhone still does havea little bit of anadvantage on the upload.But I mean the downloadis a big difference,5G is delivering almost double the speed.Now whether or not that'sworthy of the 5G badge,I'm not so sure.I mean realistically thegoal for 5G, proper 5G,is over 10 times this speed.So the fact that it's alittle bit faster than LTE,it makes sense.So, what did we learn?5G E is just anothername for LTE Advanced.And while it is faster, youshouldn't go drop everythingto buy a 5G E-enabled phone.True 5G is right around the corner.
