5G Device but Only 4G Plan

LJFFTech on 05/01/2022 - 13:12

I'm one of those ozbargainers who ran to buy a Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G phone recently on a Trade-in special promotion from Samsung. Just a month ago, I moved from Boost pre-paid to Telstra $300 pre-paid plan. Only after buying the phone, I realized that Telstra doesn't offer 5G for most pre-paid plans and I felt like a stupid for buying a 5G phone but using 4G connection. I then thought of switching to an another plan/provider but I found that there are hardly any good plans from Telstra/Optus/Vodafone for a reasonably priced 5G plan.

If you bought a 5G device recently, do you have any suggestions for me? Or are you happy to continue on a 4G connection?

Mobile

Comments

  • kerfuffle on 05/01/2022 - 13:15
    +6

    I have a 5G phone and use it on a 4G connection. Same with my iPad

    • JFFTech on 05/01/2022 - 13:22

      Cool. It looks like I'm getting paranoid for not taking advantage of a 5G phone :-).

  • salmon123 on 05/01/2022 - 13:17
    +2

    Even if you get a 5G plan, you need to be in a 5G coverage area. Coverage is still pretty poor, even in the metro areas.

    If you bought a 5G device recently, do you have any suggestions for me?

    Your best bet is to get a JB Hifi Telstra deal - $500 gift card with a 12 month contract.

    The cheapest option is vodafone prepaid, but that comes with crappy coverage.

    Or are you happy to continue on a 4G connection?

    Boost 4g is probably better than vodafone 5g.

    • JFFTech on 05/01/2022 - 13:26

      Agree, JB Hifi deal seems to be the better option if 5G is needed.

      "Boost 4G better than Vodafone 5G" is an interesting comment, I never thought of that. I will do further research :-).

      • salmon123 on 05/01/2022 - 13:34

        Optus/Vodafone 4g speeds are pretty bad in my area. I suspect it's not enough bandwidth at the towers. 5g isn't really going to fix that issue. I'm just speculating though.

        Telstra 4g (in my area) is as good as my NBN50

        • mskeggs on 05/01/2022 - 15:22

          Voda has fibre running to just about every metro tower, so unlikely to be upstream. If you are getting good bars, the congestion is likely to many people trying to connect to the one tower.
          I just tested 4G on my ipad with Optus/Amaysim, getting 15Mbps. My oppo phone on Telechoice/Telstra got about 16mbps.
          My NBN100 on Launtel gives 84mbps to the ipad (some wifi overhead there, I can get 105mbps on a wired link).

          • salmon123 on 05/01/2022 - 15:28

            @mskeggs:

            Voda has fibre running to just about every metro tower, so unlikely to be upstream. If you are getting good bars, the congestion is likely to many people trying to connect to the one tower.

            Fibre is capable of 10Gbps, I doubt vodafone (or anyone) has enough bandwidth to service every tower at 10Gbps. Unless you have some inside info, it's all speculation about where the bottleneck is.

            • mskeggs on 05/01/2022 - 15:40
              +1

              @salmon123: I worked for TPG on the deal that originally rolled out fibre to the Voda towers when the Optus/Voda infra sharing was expiring.

              The core capital city Internet links back then were 10Gbps and 40Gbps, I’d be surprised if they aren’t multiple 100Gbps now.

              The bottle neck is usually the cellular side. The only time this isn’t the case is in regional areas, or other awkward sites that are served by microwave, rather than terrestrial links. But the base stations served by microwave are usually not heavily utilized (because if there were a lot of people there it would be worth running fibre).

              I haven’t looked at Vodafone’s spectrum to work out how many simultaneous connections to each antenna is meaningful, and you’ll see plenty of towers with multiple antennas directionally positioned so they can make best use of spectrum.
              But I’d be extremely surprised if the network congestion is on the fixed side of the network.

              • Cobber870 on 05/01/2022 - 16:56

                @mskeggs: Around 5 years ago, a single strand of fibre optic could theoretically provide 180Gbps. The provider I was involved with at the time used 144-strand fibre for backhaul, with about 5 in use (not at full speed though).

                It is almost certain to be congestion on the cellular side for the large providers, too many connections to the same 4G antenna/site. Also being on the edge/limit of a sector antenna doesn't help.

    • brendanm on 05/01/2022 - 13:34
      +6

      Boost 4g is probably better than vodafone 5g.

      2 cups and a piece of string will generally be better than vodafone.

  • Drakesy on 05/01/2022 - 13:35
    +4

    IMHO 5G is overrated,
    5G towers have a much shorter coverage range due to the shortened wavelengths, yes the speed is better but really it's not worth the battery drain.

    4G is already capable of speeds up to 1Gbps, with real world speeds of around 100Mb/s which is enough for streaming 4G videos, i'm not really sure what else would put a huge demand on the bandwidth other than this. (Unless you're hot spotting to a family at home, by which time you should probably have a router.

    Personally, switch off 5G, use 4G and enjoy the increased battery life.
    It's this reason i'm quite happy with the old Boost 4G plan.

    • JFFTech on 05/01/2022 - 13:47

      Great feedback, I am at peace now. I will continue with my existing 4G plan without any regrets.

  • GordonD on 05/01/2022 - 13:41
    -1

    I have a 5G phone. My local Optus/Vodafone tower, which is so close I can see it from my roof, transmits 5G. I have a $45 5G plan with Spintel, which uses Optus. And I'm still only getting a 4G service. Which you might understand really really annoys me. Turns out Optus is actually using beamforming - which controls how much signal goes in each direction from the tower - to block the residential part of this suburb from getting 5G. It wants to say its got this really fast 5G service, but that seems to be because they're using every means to keep customers off it.

    I can't get any answer from Spintel and Optus as to why they're doing it, and if and when they going to stop doing it, and actually give customers paying for 5G the 5G service the tower can provide. I know it can because every time there's a power outage the tower comes back up with beamforming off, and stays that way at 125-200 MB/s for a couple of days until Optus realises and turns it back on, and I'm back to 4-12 Mb/s 4G.

    So I tried Vodafone. It wants me to buy a new "approved" phone brand and model off them. And they threaten that if I connect any other brand or model 5G phone to their network they'll throw me off. My phone isn't one of those approved models. The OP's phone is.

    So now I'm trying to try Telstra. It'll let me use any 5G phone. It has blanket coverage of my area. They have a $60/month pre-paid plan that includes 5G, and all their SIM-only plans except the smallest one include 5G. But my god are they are terrible company to try to do business with. I couldn't get any sense out of their online agents. I was told that a new customer like me could sign sign up for their currently discounted $15 for 12 months SIM only plans, but only if I had a Telstra ID, which you can only get if you already have a Telstra service, and therefor aren't a new customer. So I thought I'd sign up for 1 month of the 5G pre-paid service, so I could get a Telstra ID so I could sign up for the discounted post-paid SIM service, and it is taking literally forever to get it activated.

    • JFFTech on 05/01/2022 - 14:07

      That's really terrible. You have a 5G phone, 5G plan but still not getting the service is sad. I will stay away from Vodafone and Optus for now.

    • [Deactivated] on 05/01/2022 - 15:06

      I work for Vodafone. No idea where you've gotten the impression you'll be "thrown off" the network if you use a 5g device bought from another retailer. even the 5g page on vodafone's website states:

      Can I bring my own 5g device?

      You can bring your own compatible 5G device to Vodafone on a SIM Only or prepaid plan. If you purchased a 5G device from another provider, you may not have access to our full 5G coverage. Check out our approved devices to see which have been tested and optimised for use on Vodafone’s network.

      • GordonD on 05/01/2022 - 17:39

        https://www.vodafone.com.au/about/legal/devices

        Go to the Vodafone 5G page and there is a link to a page titled "Approved devices". It links to a list of Vodafone approved devices. The legal warning is "Vodafone SIM cards can only be used with Approved Devices as specified by Vodafone", and "Vodafone SIM cards that are used in non-approved devices may be suspended by Vodafone, unless Vodafone has otherwise given approval in writing. Vodafone may also block any such device from being used on the Vodafone Network."

        Note the terminology used isn't "compatible devices", it is "Vodafone approved devices", and lists exactly which ones those are.

        If I have misunderstood, maybe you need to tell the people creating your web site that you don't really mean that other 5G devices are not welcome. And if that's the case why do you have a list of "approved" devices at all. If all 5G phones are welcome then that list is at best "recommended" 5G devices.

        • [Deactivated] on 05/01/2022 - 18:23

          ah ok, so when you said you were threatened to be kicked off the network, you just read that your phone wasn't in this "approved devices" list and assumed that that would actually happen, which I completely understand now that you've explained it.

          I'll assure you now that I have seen plenty of phones not on the "approved list" using the Vodafone network, and have never heard of people's services being terminated due to the model of their phone.

          But I definitely understand where your thoughts were coming from after reading this "approved devices" list, and will give feedback to whomever I can that the list isn't worded in the best way.

          • GordonD on 05/01/2022 - 19:07

            @[Deactivated]: The related problem I had was that when I looked at the Vodafone 5G coverage map for my area I had to specify the phone I was going to use first. And virtually every approved phone generated a different coverage, some of which included my address and some didn't. I even spent a whole lot of time trying to correlate the coverage pattern with the specs of each phone to see whether it was, for example, the result of what 5G bands they supported. I was promised coverage with the more expensive phones Vodafone sold, but not the cheaper ones. I needed the answer the other way round from what the coverage map was telling me. I didn't want to know what the coverage of each of those phones was. I needed to know which of those phones gave coverage my address, and what it was that meant there was coverage at my address or not so I could see if the phone I had would give me coverage. In the end I gave up. The only way I was going to find out if my phone would give me coverage at my address, and wouldn't get kicked off the network because it wasn't an approved type and I hadn't gotten written approval from Vodafone to put their SIM in it, was to pay my money up front, and suck and see.

            This is NOT making it easy for get customers for your business.

            • [Deactivated] on 05/01/2022 - 19:27

              @GordonD: you definitely don't have to specify a phone to use the coverage checker. i just went on the coverage checker website myself and was able to just type in my suburb to see the coverage. the coverage checker shows the base coverage that every 5g phone would be able to access.

              as far as different phones showing different 5g coverage, this is answered on that coverage checker website in question:

              "Newer 5G devices have broader 5G frequency bands and therefore are able to more effectively connect to the 5G network at greater distances from our sites - meaning that 5G coverage will be expanded. There are also differences in network modes between 5G devices. For more information, check out the 5G network band specifications for each mobile phone and tablet.

              If you purchased a 5G device from another provider, you may not have access to our full 5G coverage. Check out our approved devices to see which have been tested and optimised for use on Vodafone’s network."

              as far as i know, the s21 range is currently the only "optimised" phone range with the highest amount of 5g coverage, which is why if you checked the coverage with those phones it would have been different to what you would currently be able to achieve with other 5g phones.

  • GordonD on 05/01/2022 - 13:45
    +3

    The best 4G phone is actually a 5G phone, because the newer 5G chipset and modem in it are generally capable of higher speeds on 4G, as well as much higher speeds on 5G.

  • wombat81 on 05/01/2022 - 13:47
    +1

    Just use 4g. I've had my S21+ for months on a 4g plan.

  • Nugs on 05/01/2022 - 13:50
    +3

    speed will improve once you get your booster shot
    .

    • SF3 on 05/01/2022 - 15:11

      Thanks, that explains the routine booster to sustain the speed.

  • Big Lenny on 05/01/2022 - 13:59
    +2

    i bought a 5G phone to be futureproof, but only have a 4G plan

    will prob ungrade to voda which offers it

  • Galvatron on 05/01/2022 - 17:15
    +3

    Seems previous comments have already swung you towards not having any FOMO here, which is great.

    But one more thing worth mentioning is that you should consider disabling 5G in your phone settings as well. That’ll guarantee that your phone doesn’t waste effort/battery looking for a 5G signal if all you need is 4G.

    • JFFTech on 05/01/2022 - 23:41

      Thanks mate. Yes, I have disabled 5G in my phone setting. Thanks everyone for your great inputs, much appreciated.

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join