5g plan vs 4g plan

[bbreck]

Looking for input. Have a 4g plan and wanted to know if switching to 5g I would notice a big difference and if the 250 mbps is too restrictive or is ok for most using the plans?

Thanks for any feedback.  BBreck

[dwh1]

As others have said, 100mbps should be more than fine.  One way to think about it is that that 100 megabits/sec is roughly 10 megabytes/sec.  There are 3600 seconds in an hour, so if you were to transfer data continuously at that speed, you'd use up 36 GB in an hour.  You'd use up your monthly plan at that speed within a few hours, depending on what plan you have.  The 250mbps plan would just use up your data even faster.

No of course, you're not going to be doing much that requires fast data for a whole hour - but that should tell you that fast data at that speed on a phone doesn't matter much.  At home, where you might be watching streaming video (with possibly multiple TVs going), doing large operating system updates on your devices, or downloading very large video games, yes, it's useful. But on cellular data on a phone, not so much.  

[dust2dust]

Just to clarify the two sides of the terminology here.
There is the 3G HSPA network. The 4G LTE network. The 5G network.
The plans here are all about speed. When connected to the 3G network with any plan you'll see some better speed than the marketed 3G speed plan. When connected to either 4G or 5G with a 4G speed plan you'll get upwards to 100 megs. When connected to either 4G or 5G with a 5G speed plan you'll get upwards to 250 megs.

Then there's the quantity of data in whatever plan at whatever cost. That's the real decision to make for yourself.

[sheytoon]

Totally agree with @DennyCrane. Save your money and stay on the 4G speed plan.

[DennyCrane]

I have a 5G plan, but only because the data allotment and plan features meet my needs better. But if there was an option to have everything I have now, but 4G and for $5 less, I'd take it in a heartbeat. For me there's no practical justification for the additional speed.

Now if this was a question about the difference between 3G and 4G, that's much more significant from a practical/everyday use perspective. 3Mbps (3G) is very restrictive/slow, whereas 100Mbps (4G) is significantly faster. 250Mbps (5G) is a lot faster still, but for 99% of phone browsing is unnecessary. Not to mention you need perfect signal to get that speed anyway.

As has been mentioned, just go with the plan that best suits your needs. Don't worry so much about the marketing of 4G vs 5G.

[Dunkman]

@bbreck 

Is your phone 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.  Are you have issues with your 4G plan right now?  

[JRod]

@bbreck 

The speed cap of 250Mbps is plenty of speed but also so is the speed cap of 100Mbps on the 4G plan. Anything above 100Mbps for speed is considered “fast”. 

The speed you get will depend on how fast your device and your signal strength will allow, you might see a boost but I don’t think it will be a huge difference for most daily browsing, checking emails, etc. 

I’d look towards the 4G vs 5G comparison to be more about if it offers any features that are worth the extra cost to you.