Rogers expands 5G network to 50 markets, but consumer adoption will take time

https://www.iphoneincanada.ca/carriers/ ... ews-cities

Rogers will start charging customers $15/month for 5G access starting in March 2021, a fee still noted on its 5G FAQ website. When asked if this 5G access charge was still the policy for 2021, a company spokesperson confirmed to iPhone in Canada it was still the case for next year.

pjw918 wrote: ↑ https://www.iphoneincanada.ca/carriers/ ... ews-cities

Rogers will start charging customers $15/month for 5G access starting in March 2021...

Wow.. New inventive ways to steal every penny from their customers..

Did similar thing (surcharge) happen when LTE was introduced?

bylo wrote: ↑ No one is forcing you to pay that $15. That's no different than paying higher Internet fees to ISPs as they roll out faster lines. If you need the speed then you pay the price. How is that "steal"ing?

They and their BFFs at bHell most certainly did.

Hehe. I won't need 5G probly for the next decade for sure.
LTE is now superior to typical home internet, so, my wallet is safe.

I remember when I got my first cell phone which was a Samsung Galaxy S3 4G LTE which I got in Nov. 2012. I had to wait until March of 2013 to access Telus 4G LTE, even then, the battery life was pretty poor and the signal was poor. My lesson is not to be the first kid on the block to access the new network. So, I will be waiting until I can get decent 5G options under $400 CAD. Which I will be fine because I am satisfied with my current Google Pixel 3a for maybe 2 more years. I have it on Lucky Mobile and have zero issues with the throttled LTE network.

I don’t think 5G will be any faster than LTE. What 5G will give you is more capacity

I wouldn’t pay for it. Eventually Rogers will expand the network and shut down the 4G and 3G networks and automatically migrate you to 5G

Gee wrote: ↑ I don’t think 5G will be any faster than LTE. What 5G will give you is more capacity

I wouldn’t pay for it. Eventually Rogers will expand the network and shut down the 4G and 3G networks and automatically migrate you to 5G

5G is faster then LTE and with lower latency. At the very least you get the top fast LTE speed you rarely get.

But the main issue is that it also depends on the frequency. The crazy mmWave that has speed over 500 Mbits has a very low signal range that can easily be affected by walls, glasses, etc.


https://venturebeat.com/2019/12/10/the- ... nd-speeds/

darkman007e wrote: ↑ But the main issue is that it also depends on the frequency. The crazy mmWave that has speed over 500 Mbits has a very low signal range that can easily be affected by walls, glasses, etc.

Thanks for the video. Explains a lot. Still wouldn’t pay for it. Wait for it to become the primary network and more mainstream.

bylo wrote: ↑ And this is important to the typical smartphone user today because...?

Sure 500Mb/s is 10x faster than the typical ~50Mb/s on LTE today. But unless I need to move 10s of GB of data to and from my phone, why should I care, let alone pay an extra $15/month for it. Keep in mind too that if I have that sort of speed I'm also more likely to go over my monthly data quota and thus enrich Robbers even more by way of outrageous data overage charges.

Never said it was important and with our current caps it's definitely not worth it and that 15$ extra fee is a huge turn off.

They will probably drop that fee in a couples of years tops.

The only problem with LTE is that sometimes there's congestion and the speed can be slow downtown when they are events but it's not like we'll be able to go to these events any time soon.

bylo wrote: ↑ So we all agree there's no urgency to get a 5G phone today. Which is the point I'm getting at.

Better to stuff that $15 into a piggy bank every month where it will grow to $360 in a couple of years. Use that stash to buy a new phone then, when every mid-range or higher phone will have 5G and hopefully there will be some good reasons to need it.

I’d get a 5G phone anyway. I only buy my phones every four years or so. I don’t want to be stuck until 2024 without 5G support.

Plus, all the top tier smartphones will have 5G whether you want it or not. When I buy every 4 years, it’s a top tier phone as they have the best cameras, etc.

bylo wrote: ↑ OTOH who knows how 5G will have evolved in 4 years time and if a 5G phone bought today will still be current 5G-wise? It's likely that any new standard there see improvements, some of which won't be downwards compatible. I don't upgrade my phone very often. (My current one is 3+ years old.) "FOMO" is one of the costs of doing this. I don't see a good solution for this other than learning to live with it.

In 2020, 5G is already 2nd generation, or in some cases 3rd generation. If you get a 2nd generation Qualcomm 5G phone with mmWave support, then yes, you will be more or less "current" until 2024 in Canada, at least if you use the main three carriers and their daughter brands. That may or may not be true for companies like Freedom when they go 5G (I'm not sure), but I personally wouldn't touch Freedom with a ten-foot pole anytime soon anyway since Freedom still provides sub-par service coverage.

As for the price, I won't be negotiating a new plan now. I will probably get a new plan around Xmas time or in the new year sometime, to take advantage of any deals, and one of the things I'll be looking for is reasonable pricing with 5G. And if necessary, I can wait longer. Even if it takes until 2022, I'll be ready with my new phone I will be buying this year since as mentioned, I plan on keeping it until 2024.

OTOH, if I didn't care about cameras and such and was willing to buy every 2 years, then I'd strongly consider a 4G LTE phone in 2020.

fk 5G. i want country wide free wifi.