4g vs 5g

[sarah3339]

What is the difference between 4g and 5g, currently I an on a 4 g plan and am thinking of upgrading, but what is the difference?

[fatpanda0]

Like every one said, this is just a speed limit placed on your downloads, 4G = 100mbps, 5G = 250mbps. You DO NOT need a 5G enabled phone to get 5G speeds. You can get a 5G plan on a 4G device and you will get the advertised 250mbps speed (theoretically and also tested on my phone). Same goes the other way. If you are on a 4G plan and you are seeing 5G connection on your phone, you will still be getting a 100mbps max speed.

Finally, its just a matter of what you do with your data. If you like to browse and just do some messaging then 4G should suffice. If you are into online gaming, Netflix on the road etc type of use-case then you might find 5G more appealing. Again the same is possible if you download things well in advance and store on the device. So there is no one thing is better than the other. PM allows plan changes monthly, so if you want to try a 4G plan this month and switch to a 5G one next month, go for it and test it out for yourself.

[Chalupa_Batman]

First, you have to make sure your phone is 5G compatible. 

4G plans are capped to 100 Mbps while 5G plans to 250 Mbps.  Depending on your location and the nearest cell tower, that would affect your experience.  

For day to day usage, I don't think that you will notice a big difference with the two speeds.  

[PHenry]

Right now I can tell you there's a big advantage to getting a 5G plan, they're the only plans on PM that provide unlimited data. And as of right now with the Black Friday sale, the 5G plan is the exact same price as the 4G plan, so absolutely worth it.

[will13am]

@sarah3339 , 4G, 5G is a marketing term for the speed cap placed on the plan.  For a 4G speed plan the speed cap is 100 mbits/s.  For a 5G speed plan the speed cap is 250 mbits/s.  These speed may or may not be achieved depending on signal strength, network congestion, etc.  If measured against usability, there is really not much that is discernible for these two speed caps.  One advantage of 5G speed plans is the access to unlimited heavily throttled data (512 kbps maximum) in the event the included data is used up within a plan cycle.  Note that all plans have connection access to the 5G/4G/3G networks.  

[Handy1]

@sarah3339  4G plans is data speed up to 100mbs and 5G data plan is data speed up to 250mbs  is the short answer it’s about data speed