JANUARY 2020 PCWorld 121THE RIGHT SERVICE
There are a lot of ways to break down the
definition of “service.” Let’s start by
discussing why you’ll want your network
to robustly support both mmWave and
Sub-6GHz.
mmWave
When you hear about 5G’s insane multi-
gigabit speeds, mmWave is what people are
talking about. And I can attest that it’s real and
it’s spectacular. However, it’s also extremely
limited. mmWave service relies on
communication with small towers, so it’s
deployment is often limited to discrete blocks
in an urban environment rather than across
multiple miles of uninterrupted service.
mmWave is also very finicky, has trouble
penetrating walls
and thick glass,
and needs a
straight line of
sight, so if you’re
walking away
from a tower you
might lose
service. That said,
carriers are
working on
technologies to
enhance the
reliability and
reach of
mmWave, and it
will definitely be a major component of 5G,
especially in major cities. But it’s going to be
quite limited for many years to come.Sub-6GHz
While mmWave is nice, Sub-6GHz 5G is the
5G most people will be experiencing. Similar
to LTE, it uses common wireless frequencies
and antennas to broadcast its signal, much like
4G LTE. While there are limitations when
compared to mmWave—mainly speeds and
bandwidth—it’s far more realistic on a
nationwide scale, so you’ll want to make sure
your carrier is bringing Sub-6GHz to your town
before committing to a 5G phone. The good
news, though, is that the infrastructure rollout
should be much quicker than mmWave, which
has been frustratingly slow.The Galaxy S10 5G (left) uses the X50 modem.