5G vs 4G

[ElegantTomato]

Hello all!

I am currently on a Public Mobile plan with 5G speeds. I honestly don't see the difference in speed between this and my old Fido 4G plan. There is a different plan available with Public which is a little cheaper but would bump me down from 5G to 4G. Does anyone have experience with this? I spend most of my time in Saint John, New Brunswick. 

[funpig1]

@ElegantTomato 

5G performance is affected by distance more than 4G.  If your location is far from a 5G tower, your connection will switch to 4G which will have the stronger signal or better range.  

Try using a tower location app and find your nearest PM/Telus 5G tower.  If your drive closer to the tower, you should get 5G on your phone and your speed will jump dramatically.  When you drive farther away, you get switched to 4G.

It is always a balancing act.  If people pay the few dollars more, they want the strongest and fasted 5G possible.  However, in the event that Telus decides to erect a giant 5G tower beside these people's houses, they would complain and start wrapping tin foil around their heads.

[slusagm]

if you just regular browser or using app, 4G is already good, even 3G at 3Mbps is reasonable

So, if you have a similar plan but cheaper on 4G, why not

the only real advantage to some high usage users is that 5G (canada only) plans all come with unlimited slow speed when you use up your data for the cycle

[will13am]

@ElegantTomato , the 4G/5G marketing term applies to speed cap on plans.  Everyone gets access to the 5G network.  So you won't experience any downgrade in connectivity.  

[ElegantTomato]

Thank you @hTideGnow 

This is very helpful and I will try both 4G and 5G out. 

[hTideGnow]

HI @ElegantTomato 

for usage for most people, 4G is more than enough.  4G has an top speed of 100Mbps and average to be 50+.  It is enough even for HD video streaming.  Unless you upload lots of files or you share internet (hotspot), there is really no need for 5G

so 4G has top speed of 100Mbps , and 5G has 250Mbps.  Best for you is to run couple speed test at different time of the day and different location to see what speed you are getting

you can also change your network mode to 4G and use it for couple days and see if you like the 4G speed