Real world usage of 5G in India



5G has been rolling out in India for quite some time now and while there had been some wild claims by Modem, handset manufacturers, Telecom giants regarding how revolutionary the 5G technology is and how it is going to change our life and so on but most of us skeptical regarding real benefits of switching to 5G. Today most of us are still using 4G handsets and some might be thinking of switching to 5G handset but 5G handsets charge premium over 4G handsets, you might also be thinking if the premium charge for 5G is worth it or not. So, I would be sharing my real world experience with 5G which can help you to  decide if the you need to switch to 5G or not.



The 5G experience will differ depending on your location, Telecom carrier and to some extent your mobile device which might be due to the fact that some 5G bands be missing from your phone. This is my real world experience based on my activities.

First thing you would notice right away is the download speed, it would easily match your Wi-Fi speed and if you download a lot then 5G would be beneficial for you. On speed test I would easily get 300Mbps - 500Mbps and also while downloading apps, videos etc; I would get great speeds. One use I found was downloading movies and shows at last moment while travelling. Download speeds were soo good that I downloaded whole web series at last moment when my train was about to depart. This has helped me a lot since I use to travel a lot to my hometown and to my work place and it's a overnight journey so I would download whole web series and binge watch in the train at night. I have done this multiple time now and it's just great but I don't how long the JIO Welcome offer will last (Unlimited 5G data) until then it's just amazing.


Second use case I found was in very crowded areas like in crowded shows and events (as a college student I go to lot of fests and events), usually 4G won't work in places where there might be sudden surge in cellular connectivity demand. Even if your phone might support carrier aggregation (4G+), you might be unable to use internet and make calls while you might still not be able to call with 5G connection but you easily use your internet and this has been truly a life safer for obvious reasons (make WhatsApp calls, use Uber, OLA, Maps for navigation at 8-9 PM).

Next benefit might be for pro mobile gamers as Ping is usually very low but I don't think there would be huge difference as Upload speeds remains same around 2/3 Mbps. Personally I don't do gaming much but I have seen minor improvements in responsiveness of games like PUBG, COD etc. In future, Cloud gaming might make huge impact on mobile gaming in which 5G connection/ high speed data connection is a must to have but I think cloud gaming is still at nascent stage so until then 5G might not be very useful there.

Most of the points I have mentioned till now has been about positives of 5G, now I would be talking cons with 5G. First the data will get exhausted way faster than 4G, traditionally 1/1.5/2 GB data pack would get easily exhausted in half day by watching 2-3 YouTube videos and by scrolling some reels. I used 100% of data just by doing speed tests. You will need more data and the 5G data would cost more for sure than 4G data. Another area where 5G has issue is that it consumes more power compared to 4G, it draws more power from your phone and your battery life may take a hit. Although, for internet you might use 5G but for calls your phone might switch back to 4G and sometimes there are call drops and some other problems while transitioning back to 4G. One thing which is constant with 5G is 90% of the time the network reception would be like half what you would get on 4G. Full 5G reception you would get only if you stand right in front of tower without any obstacle in between and if you live in high rise building or crowded area signal would constantly jump between 4G and 5G and speed you would get would be close to 4G. If you want to get very high speeds then you should be close to the tower itself with very few obstacles in between.

So, this was my real life experience with 5G in India. Hope this article would help you to figure out 5G and will help you decide whether to switch to 5G or not.

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