• solrize@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    "This is an important research question because we can see mobile traffic going up over the next decade by a factor of 10 or even a factor of 20. "

    Wtf are they going to do with that? Always-on video from wireless devices everywhere? Holographic movies on every web page? It sounds terrible. I remember having to make phone calls for basic communication. These days you send a text or email, except now and then you want the higher bandwidth of a voice call. That is, we have been moving toward LESS bandwidth rather than more.

    Whatever is imagined being done with all the new bandwidth can’t be good.

    • echo64@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Your personal usage does not align with the majority. Look at tiktok, it’s social media based around endless video files. It’s not an occasional text or email, it’s hundreds of videos that your constantly scrolling through.

      • solrize@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        OK, good point. Are people using mobile data for that? Yes you’re right I’m not on social media etc. Also I’m on a super cheap mobile plan with enough monthly data to check email and look at some occasional web pages, but if I want to watch a video I almost always use home internet for that. I guess if this super high bandwidth mobile stuff kills Comcast though, some good will have come out of it. The Register article talks mostly about IoT and “AI/ML” rather than social media though.

        Is 5g mobile data cheaper for the end user than 4g in practice? The sticker prices and advertised data caps for monthly plans look to me to be about the same as before, but maybe more of the data cap is usable in practice.

        • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          OK, good point. Are people using mobile data for that?

          Unlimited data. You do whatever you want, whenever you want, wherever you want.

          I haven’t seen any carriers charging extra for 5g but I don’t see why it would be more expensive since the quicker you’re done using the data the quicker the tower can serve someone else.

          • solrize@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            That’s what I mean, it seems to cost as much as before. I was hoping to hear that it had gotten a lot cheaper, not stayed the same. Ideally, it should be pervasive and free, but I don’t mind in that case if it is relatively slow.

            Every “unlimited” mobile plan I’ve heard of has fine print that says it slows to a crawl after some amount. I don’t know if the real limits are different in practice, so I was asking about that.

    • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz
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      1 year ago

      And nobody will ever need more than 640K of memory, so the fact that even your cell phone carries vastly more than that must mean you yourself are up to no good, right?

      Even if you’re not dealing with a constant video stream, the power of the internet lies in moving vast amounts of data around. Yeah a lot of that information is based of corporate privacy invasion, but you also have things like medical databases or performing jobs remotely. I had gigabit routers in my home at a time when 10/100 routers were still typically used even in businesses. If you have a capability, someone will find a way to make use of it and new innovations will pop up that we hadn’t even considered before. Imagine where we would be at if Xerox hadn’t invented the mouse and GUI desktop years before personal home computers were even available.

      • solrize@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        All the examples you mention work fine with wired internet. No need to let the carriers keep gobbling RF spectrum for mobile.

        someone will find a way to make use of it and new innovations will pop up

        Nah, it’s all surveillance dystopia from here on out.

    • Aux@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Don’t you watch HDR movies in 4K on the go? Ok, not 4K, but people stream a lot of HD videos all the time. As well as stream from their phone cameras to Facebook and Twitch. Another issue is that high density cities have way too many people trying to do all this high bandwidth stuff at once.

      And video calls. Don’t forget video calls.

      • solrize@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        How much extra do I have to pay to not be in video calls? I almost never watch videos while mobile but I guess some people do. I doubt if I could tell the difference between SD and HD on a phone screen though.

        • Aux@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          If you personally don’t do something it doesn’t mean that the majority of the population is like you. Worldwide traffic use average is 20GB per person. What’s even more interesting, is that US number is lower than average in Europe, the Middle East and East Asia. And guess what? More than half of the world’s population lives in Europe, the Middle East and East Asia. So if you live in US, it’s not just you, but also people around you who are not representative of mobile internet use.

    • yamanii@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Always-on video from wireless devices everywhere?

      They can’t even give me more than 20GB a month without forking over more than I pay for my home internet, never happening in my lifetime.