The World of 5G Frequencies: A New Era in Mobile Communication

As we continue to push the boundaries of what is possible with mobile communication, the world of 5G frequencies has become increasingly important. With the rapid rollout of 5G networks across the globe, it's essential to understand the different types of frequencies that are being used and how they compare to one another.

One of the most significant developments in this space is the emergence of sub-6 GHz frequencies, which are higher than low-band frequencies but lower than millimeter wave frequencies. These frequencies are often referred to as "mid-band" or "sub-6" frequencies, and they offer a promising compromise between range and capacity. Verizon, for example, plans to use 3.5 GHz soon and will call it "Ultra Wideband," while T-Mobile uses 2.5 GHz and calls it "Ultra Capacity 5G." This new icon on your phone is designed to indicate the different frequency bands being used.

Another type of frequency that's gaining traction is the concept of "Ultra Wideband" or "UWB" frequencies, which are higher than sub-6 GHz but lower than millimeter wave frequencies. These frequencies were once thought to be impossible to use for data communication due to their short range and poor penetration capabilities. However, Qualcomm has developed a solution using multiple antennas in the phone, as well as beamforming technology, to make this work. As a result, UWB frequencies are now being used in dense city centers where smaller base stations can be stationed more easily.

Millimeter wave frequencies, on the other hand, are above 6 GHz and are often referred to as "high-band" or "mmWave" frequencies. These frequencies have the shortest range of all, but they also offer the most bandwidth. Examples include Verizon's use of 28 GHz and 39 GHz for their millimeter wave 5G, which they call "Ultra Wideband 5G." T-Mobile uses the same frequencies and calls it "5G Plus" with an icon to match.

According to real-world data from UCLA, phones using Qualcomm Snapdragon modems have achieved speeds of over two gigabits per second on UWB frequencies. This is significantly faster than download speeds achieved on low-band 5G, which are around 150 megabits per second. Additionally, Qualcomm's technology has also improved download speeds by 38 times compared to LTE and 19 times compared to sub-6 GHz.

One of the most significant benefits of these new frequencies is their ability to offer more capacity without being bogged down by congestion. This means that users can expect faster speeds and lower latency, even in crowded areas like stadiums and sporting events. In fact, UCLA's data shows that phones using Qualcomm Snapdragon modems are getting 38 times faster download speeds on UWB than on LTE.

While each carrier will ultimately use all three types of frequencies – sub-6 GHz, UWB, and millimeter wave – Qualcomm is currently the only chipset that can access all three. However, as these frequencies mature, it's likely that other chipsets will emerge to support them. For now, it's essential to understand what each icon and name represents when you see a 5G or 5G Plus or UWB frequency being used by your carrier.

In conclusion, the world of 5G frequencies is rapidly evolving, with new technologies emerging all the time. As we continue to push the boundaries of what is possible with mobile communication, it's essential to stay informed about the different types of frequencies that are being used and how they compare to one another. By doing so, you'll be better equipped to make sense of the complex world of 5G networks and take advantage of the faster speeds and lower latency that these new frequencies have to offer.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis video is sponsored by qualcomm thank you we need to talk 5g is becoming more and more common in top-end devices and even in a lot of mid-range devices they're all now coming with the hardware needed to support the new networks on top of that the carriers are pushing out the infrastructure required way faster than they did for 4g and it just kind of feels like it's gradually becoming our just new network now while i did a few other videos explaining what 5g is and how it works there's still something i think people need to know and it just seems like they don't and that's that all 5g is not created equal so in this decoder episode the explainer series here on my channel let's talk about the difference between low band sub 6 and millimeter wave 5g the type responsible for those crazy multi-gigabit speed tests that you see online and why it's important that you know what the differences are okay we need to quickly talk about frequencies i'm not getting too deep into it radio waves like the ones that we use for cell phones and even wifi and bluetooth all send data in cycles or waves the speed at which these waves go is called the frequency and it's measured in hertz which translates to once per second kilohertz which is a thousand times a second megahertz a million times a second and gigahertz a billion times a second so a frequency like 850 megahertz a common cellular frequency translates to 850 million cycles per second there's only so much spectrum to go around because once something is broadcasting on a frequency other things can't also broadcast on that frequency in the same space or they'll interfere with each other so here's a chart from 2016 showing all of the spectrum allocated in the us it has changed since then obviously as the government holds auctions to reallocate spectrum to carriers to create more available to them and us for cell phone data for example but this is just to illustrate how spectrum gets divvied up and show that there are various uses and areas that are more crowded and less crowded and this is important because the technology that 5g uses can work on any number of frequencies again i'll leave a link below to more of a deep dive if you're curious about that but depending on what frequency it's on there are some pros and cons now these frequencies are broken down into three different groups for 5g low band sub 6 which is called mid band and millimeter wave which is often referred to as high band low band 5g is 5g and the frequencies below 2 gigahertz which is where we usually see the range of lte some examples of this here in the us is t-mobile uses their 600 megahertz for their 5g and they actually call this their extended range 5g but the symbol on your phone just comes up as 5g att is using their 850 megahertz band and they just call it 5g the icon is also 5g and verizon is essentially using all of their original lte bands 850 900 1700 and 2100 all for lte and 5g at the same time and they call this their nationwide 5g now 5g on these frequencies is going to be faster than lte basically because of the inherent tech that 5g just employs but the benefits to using these lower frequencies is that lower frequencies in general just have a much longer range and they're better at penetrating objects like the walls of a building for example the downside to these frequencies though is that there's just not a lot of bandwidth so there's not a lot of data that can be sent at a time and that's just because it's in that very crowded range of spectrum being used by a lot of different things it's important to note that all of the carriers basically will use their existing lte frequencies for 5g eventually in the same way that they were using them for 3g and now they use them for lte or 4g 5g will also replace that too next is sub six and now sub six technically means below six gigahertz but when you hear it referred to with 5g it generally means between two and six gigahertz and it's often called mid band because it's a little bit higher than the low band more crowded frequencies we just talked about and below the millimeter wave high band frequencies that we'll talk about in a sec some examples of this are verizon planning to use 3.5 gigahertz soon and they'll call that ultra wideband and the icon on your phone is going to be a 5g uw t-mobile uses 2.5 gigahertz and calls it ultra capacity 5g and has a new icon for this with 5g uc in it to indicate the different band and lastly 18t will also use 3.5 gigahertz and call it 5g plus these frequencies are higher than the low band so they don't reach quite as far but they're in a space of the spectrum that is less crowded than all of those low band frequencies and so think of it like a larger pipe that they can send more data through on these frequencies this then translates to more capacity so it won't get as bogged down when there's more people on it but also more speed now according to real world data from ucla the makers of the popular speed test app we can see how much faster sub 6 is than low band 5g and also according to o'clock qualcomm and their snapdragon chipset powers the fastest sub 6 devices in germany and china even lastly we have millimeter wave and this is the term used for frequencies above six gigahertz also called high band and usually they're a lot higher than that fun fact actually they're called millimeter waves because the wavelengths themselves are between one and ten millimeters in length compared to the lower frequencies that are usually a dozen or so centimeters in length example this is verizon using 28 gigahertz and 39 gigahertz for their millimeter wave 5g which they call ultra wideband 5g and when you look at the phone you have an icon that actually is a 5g uw t-mobile actually uses the same frequencies 28 and 39 gigahertz as well and also calls it the same as their mid band ultra capacity 5g again with a 5g uc icon the last of the major carriers here in the us at t uses 39 gigahertz as well but only 39 and calls it 5g plus with an icon to match now these frequencies were actually once thought to be impossible to use for data communication and part of that is because they have a much shorter range but also because they don't penetrate objects very well your hand for example could potentially block signal now qualcomm though did actually find a way to make this work and make it viable they use multiple antennas in the phone so that there's always one not being blocked by your hand along with a ton of other technology like beam forming etc but because of the inherent range limitations this frequency of 5g is gonna be used more in dense city centers where smaller base stations can be stationed more easily but also fixed wireless in homes where all of the carriers can use these frequencies to potentially replace your broadband and stadiums and sporting events now the benefit to these frequencies though is that they are in a large swath of spectrum that's relatively unused and so it can have much larger bandwidth than the other two as demonstrated by me getting over two gigabits per second on my phone here in a packed stadium and even here in crowded midtown manhattan during rush hour ucla again has some real world data that shows phones using qualcomm snapdragon modem rf technology are getting 38 times faster download speeds on millimeter wave over lte and 19 times faster than download speeds with sub 6. now all these 5g frequencies are meant to work together in city centers and stadiums you'll have that millimeter wave sub 6 will overlap that and reach out further and low band will overlap that and reach out even further each carrier will end up most likely using all three of the varieties and it's interesting to note that qualcomm at least at the moment is the only chipset you can have on your phone that can access all three but as it stands now each of these are being built out and maturing and they will all get faster and have lower latency but i feel like it's important to know right now when you see a 5g or 5g plus or uw or whatever other icon and or name the carriers are giving them what they actually mean there you go guys hope you enjoyed the video and hope it answered some questions that maybe you had let me know in the comments below what you thought also if you're not following me on instagram already go check that out give me a follow there you can see some behind the scenes stuff and some other fun stuff i'm up to otherwise if you're not subscribed to the channel please do so ding the bell next to the word subscribe so you get notified when i do new videos as always though regardless thanks for watchingthis video is sponsored by qualcomm thank you we need to talk 5g is becoming more and more common in top-end devices and even in a lot of mid-range devices they're all now coming with the hardware needed to support the new networks on top of that the carriers are pushing out the infrastructure required way faster than they did for 4g and it just kind of feels like it's gradually becoming our just new network now while i did a few other videos explaining what 5g is and how it works there's still something i think people need to know and it just seems like they don't and that's that all 5g is not created equal so in this decoder episode the explainer series here on my channel let's talk about the difference between low band sub 6 and millimeter wave 5g the type responsible for those crazy multi-gigabit speed tests that you see online and why it's important that you know what the differences are okay we need to quickly talk about frequencies i'm not getting too deep into it radio waves like the ones that we use for cell phones and even wifi and bluetooth all send data in cycles or waves the speed at which these waves go is called the frequency and it's measured in hertz which translates to once per second kilohertz which is a thousand times a second megahertz a million times a second and gigahertz a billion times a second so a frequency like 850 megahertz a common cellular frequency translates to 850 million cycles per second there's only so much spectrum to go around because once something is broadcasting on a frequency other things can't also broadcast on that frequency in the same space or they'll interfere with each other so here's a chart from 2016 showing all of the spectrum allocated in the us it has changed since then obviously as the government holds auctions to reallocate spectrum to carriers to create more available to them and us for cell phone data for example but this is just to illustrate how spectrum gets divvied up and show that there are various uses and areas that are more crowded and less crowded and this is important because the technology that 5g uses can work on any number of frequencies again i'll leave a link below to more of a deep dive if you're curious about that but depending on what frequency it's on there are some pros and cons now these frequencies are broken down into three different groups for 5g low band sub 6 which is called mid band and millimeter wave which is often referred to as high band low band 5g is 5g and the frequencies below 2 gigahertz which is where we usually see the range of lte some examples of this here in the us is t-mobile uses their 600 megahertz for their 5g and they actually call this their extended range 5g but the symbol on your phone just comes up as 5g att is using their 850 megahertz band and they just call it 5g the icon is also 5g and verizon is essentially using all of their original lte bands 850 900 1700 and 2100 all for lte and 5g at the same time and they call this their nationwide 5g now 5g on these frequencies is going to be faster than lte basically because of the inherent tech that 5g just employs but the benefits to using these lower frequencies is that lower frequencies in general just have a much longer range and they're better at penetrating objects like the walls of a building for example the downside to these frequencies though is that there's just not a lot of bandwidth so there's not a lot of data that can be sent at a time and that's just because it's in that very crowded range of spectrum being used by a lot of different things it's important to note that all of the carriers basically will use their existing lte frequencies for 5g eventually in the same way that they were using them for 3g and now they use them for lte or 4g 5g will also replace that too next is sub six and now sub six technically means below six gigahertz but when you hear it referred to with 5g it generally means between two and six gigahertz and it's often called mid band because it's a little bit higher than the low band more crowded frequencies we just talked about and below the millimeter wave high band frequencies that we'll talk about in a sec some examples of this are verizon planning to use 3.5 gigahertz soon and they'll call that ultra wideband and the icon on your phone is going to be a 5g uw t-mobile uses 2.5 gigahertz and calls it ultra capacity 5g and has a new icon for this with 5g uc in it to indicate the different band and lastly 18t will also use 3.5 gigahertz and call it 5g plus these frequencies are higher than the low band so they don't reach quite as far but they're in a space of the spectrum that is less crowded than all of those low band frequencies and so think of it like a larger pipe that they can send more data through on these frequencies this then translates to more capacity so it won't get as bogged down when there's more people on it but also more speed now according to real world data from ucla the makers of the popular speed test app we can see how much faster sub 6 is than low band 5g and also according to o'clock qualcomm and their snapdragon chipset powers the fastest sub 6 devices in germany and china even lastly we have millimeter wave and this is the term used for frequencies above six gigahertz also called high band and usually they're a lot higher than that fun fact actually they're called millimeter waves because the wavelengths themselves are between one and ten millimeters in length compared to the lower frequencies that are usually a dozen or so centimeters in length example this is verizon using 28 gigahertz and 39 gigahertz for their millimeter wave 5g which they call ultra wideband 5g and when you look at the phone you have an icon that actually is a 5g uw t-mobile actually uses the same frequencies 28 and 39 gigahertz as well and also calls it the same as their mid band ultra capacity 5g again with a 5g uc icon the last of the major carriers here in the us at t uses 39 gigahertz as well but only 39 and calls it 5g plus with an icon to match now these frequencies were actually once thought to be impossible to use for data communication and part of that is because they have a much shorter range but also because they don't penetrate objects very well your hand for example could potentially block signal now qualcomm though did actually find a way to make this work and make it viable they use multiple antennas in the phone so that there's always one not being blocked by your hand along with a ton of other technology like beam forming etc but because of the inherent range limitations this frequency of 5g is gonna be used more in dense city centers where smaller base stations can be stationed more easily but also fixed wireless in homes where all of the carriers can use these frequencies to potentially replace your broadband and stadiums and sporting events now the benefit to these frequencies though is that they are in a large swath of spectrum that's relatively unused and so it can have much larger bandwidth than the other two as demonstrated by me getting over two gigabits per second on my phone here in a packed stadium and even here in crowded midtown manhattan during rush hour ucla again has some real world data that shows phones using qualcomm snapdragon modem rf technology are getting 38 times faster download speeds on millimeter wave over lte and 19 times faster than download speeds with sub 6. now all these 5g frequencies are meant to work together in city centers and stadiums you'll have that millimeter wave sub 6 will overlap that and reach out further and low band will overlap that and reach out even further each carrier will end up most likely using all three of the varieties and it's interesting to note that qualcomm at least at the moment is the only chipset you can have on your phone that can access all three but as it stands now each of these are being built out and maturing and they will all get faster and have lower latency but i feel like it's important to know right now when you see a 5g or 5g plus or uw or whatever other icon and or name the carriers are giving them what they actually mean there you go guys hope you enjoyed the video and hope it answered some questions that maybe you had let me know in the comments below what you thought also if you're not following me on instagram already go check that out give me a follow there you can see some behind the scenes stuff and some other fun stuff i'm up to otherwise if you're not subscribed to the channel please do so ding the bell next to the word subscribe so you get notified when i do new videos as always though regardless thanks for watchingthis video is sponsored by qualcomm thank you we need to talk 5g is becoming more and more common in top-end devices and even in a lot of mid-range devices they're all now coming with the hardware needed to support the new networks on top of that the carriers are pushing out the infrastructure required way faster than they did for 4g and it just kind of feels like it's gradually becoming our just new network now while i did a few other videos explaining what 5g is and how it works there's still something i think people need to know and it just seems like they don't and that's that all 5g is not created equal so in this decoder episode the explainer series here on my channel let's talk about the difference between low band sub 6 and millimeter wave 5g the type responsible for those crazy multi-gigabit speed tests that you see online and why it's important that you know what the differences are okay we need to quickly talk about frequencies i'm not getting too deep into it radio waves like the ones that we use for cell phones and even wifi and bluetooth all send data in cycles or waves the speed at which these waves go is called the frequency and it's measured in hertz which translates to once per second kilohertz which is a thousand times a second megahertz a million times a second and gigahertz a billion times a second so a frequency like 850 megahertz a common cellular frequency translates to 850 million cycles per second there's only so much spectrum to go around because once something is broadcasting on a frequency other things can't also broadcast on that frequency in the same space or they'll interfere with each other so here's a chart from 2016 showing all of the spectrum allocated in the us it has changed since then obviously as the government holds auctions to reallocate spectrum to carriers to create more available to them and us for cell phone data for example but this is just to illustrate how spectrum gets divvied up and show that there are various uses and areas that are more crowded and less crowded and this is important because the technology that 5g uses can work on any number of frequencies again i'll leave a link below to more of a deep dive if you're curious about that but depending on what frequency it's on there are some pros and cons now these frequencies are broken down into three different groups for 5g low band sub 6 which is called mid band and millimeter wave which is often referred to as high band low band 5g is 5g and the frequencies below 2 gigahertz which is where we usually see the range of lte some examples of this here in the us is t-mobile uses their 600 megahertz for their 5g and they actually call this their extended range 5g but the symbol on your phone just comes up as 5g att is using their 850 megahertz band and they just call it 5g the icon is also 5g and verizon is essentially using all of their original lte bands 850 900 1700 and 2100 all for lte and 5g at the same time and they call this their nationwide 5g now 5g on these frequencies is going to be faster than lte basically because of the inherent tech that 5g just employs but the benefits to using these lower frequencies is that lower frequencies in general just have a much longer range and they're better at penetrating objects like the walls of a building for example the downside to these frequencies though is that there's just not a lot of bandwidth so there's not a lot of data that can be sent at a time and that's just because it's in that very crowded range of spectrum being used by a lot of different things it's important to note that all of the carriers basically will use their existing lte frequencies for 5g eventually in the same way that they were using them for 3g and now they use them for lte or 4g 5g will also replace that too next is sub six and now sub six technically means below six gigahertz but when you hear it referred to with 5g it generally means between two and six gigahertz and it's often called mid band because it's a little bit higher than the low band more crowded frequencies we just talked about and below the millimeter wave high band frequencies that we'll talk about in a sec some examples of this are verizon planning to use 3.5 gigahertz soon and they'll call that ultra wideband and the icon on your phone is going to be a 5g uw t-mobile uses 2.5 gigahertz and calls it ultra capacity 5g and has a new icon for this with 5g uc in it to indicate the different band and lastly 18t will also use 3.5 gigahertz and call it 5g plus these frequencies are higher than the low band so they don't reach quite as far but they're in a space of the spectrum that is less crowded than all of those low band frequencies and so think of it like a larger pipe that they can send more data through on these frequencies this then translates to more capacity so it won't get as bogged down when there's more people on it but also more speed now according to real world data from ucla the makers of the popular speed test app we can see how much faster sub 6 is than low band 5g and also according to o'clock qualcomm and their snapdragon chipset powers the fastest sub 6 devices in germany and china even lastly we have millimeter wave and this is the term used for frequencies above six gigahertz also called high band and usually they're a lot higher than that fun fact actually they're called millimeter waves because the wavelengths themselves are between one and ten millimeters in length compared to the lower frequencies that are usually a dozen or so centimeters in length example this is verizon using 28 gigahertz and 39 gigahertz for their millimeter wave 5g which they call ultra wideband 5g and when you look at the phone you have an icon that actually is a 5g uw t-mobile actually uses the same frequencies 28 and 39 gigahertz as well and also calls it the same as their mid band ultra capacity 5g again with a 5g uc icon the last of the major carriers here in the us at t uses 39 gigahertz as well but only 39 and calls it 5g plus with an icon to match now these frequencies were actually once thought to be impossible to use for data communication and part of that is because they have a much shorter range but also because they don't penetrate objects very well your hand for example could potentially block signal now qualcomm though did actually find a way to make this work and make it viable they use multiple antennas in the phone so that there's always one not being blocked by your hand along with a ton of other technology like beam forming etc but because of the inherent range limitations this frequency of 5g is gonna be used more in dense city centers where smaller base stations can be stationed more easily but also fixed wireless in homes where all of the carriers can use these frequencies to potentially replace your broadband and stadiums and sporting events now the benefit to these frequencies though is that they are in a large swath of spectrum that's relatively unused and so it can have much larger bandwidth than the other two as demonstrated by me getting over two gigabits per second on my phone here in a packed stadium and even here in crowded midtown manhattan during rush hour ucla again has some real world data that shows phones using qualcomm snapdragon modem rf technology are getting 38 times faster download speeds on millimeter wave over lte and 19 times faster than download speeds with sub 6. now all these 5g frequencies are meant to work together in city centers and stadiums you'll have that millimeter wave sub 6 will overlap that and reach out further and low band will overlap that and reach out even further each carrier will end up most likely using all three of the varieties and it's interesting to note that qualcomm at least at the moment is the only chipset you can have on your phone that can access all three but as it stands now each of these are being built out and maturing and they will all get faster and have lower latency but i feel like it's important to know right now when you see a 5g or 5g plus or uw or whatever other icon and or name the carriers are giving them what they actually mean there you go guys hope you enjoyed the video and hope it answered some questions that maybe you had let me know in the comments below what you thought also if you're not following me on instagram already go check that out give me a follow there you can see some behind the scenes stuff and some other fun stuff i'm up to otherwise if you're not subscribed to the channel please do so ding the bell next to the word subscribe so you get notified when i do new videos as always though regardless thanks for watching\n"