5G is so good, but how many people can afford the data charges?

In the past 2019, with the issuance of 5G commercial licenses, various mobile phone manufacturers have launched 5G mobile phones, and China's 5G market has entered a stage of rapid development. If last year is recognized as the first year of 5G, then this year 2020 should be the year of the explosion of 5G networks. Although major mobile phone manufacturers, major operators and even TV manufacturers and home appliance industries are promoting 5G networks, in actual use, not many users can clearly feel its benefits until now.

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Last year, insufficient 5G network coverage may have prevented some consumers from trying it out, but now almost all first- and second-tier cities are covered by 5G networks. This year, the issue of pricing may be what hinders the development of 5G.

What is 5G?

Since this is a 5G article, it is inevitable to introduce the benefits of upgrading to the 5G network. First of all, it is clear that upgrading to 5G will be the development trend of the future communications market. 5G refers to the fifth generation of cellular mobile communications. From 4G to 5G, we experience the convenience of mobile networks, and high-speed wireless traffic has driven the development of the streaming live broadcast industry. With the popularity of short videos and the development of smart homes, 5G with higher speeds and lower latency has become an inevitable development direction.

There are three 5G solutions: eMBB, URLLC, and mMTC, which refer to three different usage scenarios: eMBB is a mobile broadband service for large traffic, which we will use frequently in the future; URLLC is used for extremely low-latency and reliable networks for industrial automation or remote precision operations, and is aimed at remote control industries and unmanned driving; mMTC is machine communication used to transmit data when connecting a large number of devices, which is simply smart home and the Internet of Things.

Once 5G becomes popular, many operations that could not be completed in the 4G era will be realized. For example, 5G networks can support the transmission of high-definition video enhanced content. Now, hospitals in many regions have tried 5G remote surgery. Due to the timeliness and precision requirements of surgery, the 4G network obviously cannot meet the needs of remote operations with almost zero delay, but 5G can achieve it.

5G is not popular in the consumer market

Although 5G still has countless benefits waiting for us to discover, it seems that the consumer market, especially the 5G packages for mobile phones, are not popular at present. Judging from the price of China Mobile's 5G network packages, the cheapest package is close to 130 yuan, including 30GB of traffic and 500 minutes of voice calls. Yes, you read it right, these two numbers have not been swapped. Isn't it like going back to the time when we just used 4G or even 3G networks. Think about the speed and usage scenarios of the 5G network. 30GB of traffic is simply not enough for 5G mobile phones. Please note that there is currently no such thing as a 5G unlimited traffic package. The highest tier is a 300GB traffic package, and the fee has increased to nearly 600 yuan. Seeing this, you might as well open the settings of your phone to check how much traffic you have used in the past half month.

If it is in the 4G era, you may think that now is just a trial period, and the tariff will naturally drop after this period. Let me pour cold water on you first. At present, the base station construction of the three major operators is actually undertaken by China Tower Corporation, and the chairman of China Telecom, Ke Ruiwen, recently stated at a special meeting on accelerating the development of 5G that he would never engage in price wars and hoped that the whole industry would jointly promote the construction and sharing of 5G. In other words, China Telecom will not lower its prices just because the other two operators have lower prices. It seems that it is hopeless to get a 5G package with lower tariffs in the short term.

Under such circumstances, many consumers who buy 5G mobile phones are still using 4G networks. Most consumers are taking a wait-and-see attitude due to the generally high prices of 5G mobile phones. Even if some manufacturers have launched 5G mobile phones in the 2,000-level range, the final 5G tariff is still unaffordable for ordinary consumers.

Don’t buy a 5G phone if you can avoid it

The 5G era is coming, so should we change to 5G mobile phones? In my opinion, if you just want a good mobile phone, and you just make calls, browse WeChat, watch videos, etc., mid-to-high-end mobile phone models can meet your needs, and there is no need to change to a 5G mobile phone. On the one hand, 5G networks may not cover prefecture-level cities until the end of the year. For more remote cities, it is estimated that they may not be covered until 2020. On the other hand, there are currently no 5G applications on mobile phones. Imagine that you can play games and watch videos online with a 4G network, and it is just as smooth. Now more 5G network speeds are just running points in SPEEDTEST. So my suggestion is that you don’t have to change your phone for 5G.

Summary: In addition to mobile phones, 5G has more uses

In fact, in addition to 5G mobile phones, 5G has more uses. For example, 5G can transmit high-quality 4K high-definition images in real time at the live broadcast site. It is no longer necessary to wait for a while before receiving the questions after the host of the live broadcast room asks them. Basically, questions can be answered immediately. In the medical field, through the 5G network, doctors can perform remote surgery. Because the data from various sensors and cameras are transmitted with almost zero delay, doctors can use remote control devices to perform surgery on patients around the world. As for mobile games, there is no need to download and update them, because the speed is sufficient. Every time you play, you can operate and save online without worrying about image quality issues. It will be a brand new experience. With the help of cloud-based algorithm processing on the Internet, driverless technology will also be here soon...

5G has already become the trend of the future, but for ordinary users, there is still a long way to go before they can really use it on their phones. At present, the main reason is that the cost of 5G phones is too high and the package charges are too expensive. The problem now is that you may be able to afford a 5G phone but not necessarily a 5G package. So although 5G is good, if you really plan to change to a 5G phone, you should think twice.