[duelingjello]

I worked briefly in the radio group at Trimble Nav Ltd. around the DotCom times.

900 MHz and VHF CB bands didn’t have great channel bandwidth but sure worked well at a distance. 2.4 GHz was marginal but useful just like as it’s used for WiFi. 5+ GHz is/was basically useless... and 802.11/A proved that out. GPS and other satnavs use the L-band 1.2 - 1.6 GHz which is a very sweet spot for many applications. Cell phones use/used 450, 800 MHz through L-bands, which makes sense.

5G is being deployed in bands (24 - 71 GHz) that are implicitly trying to sell as much equipment making the deployment as expensive as possible and/or going to waste an enormous amount of energy trying to overcompensate for their horrible spectrum utilization. I predict 5G will die, not because of unfounded conspiracy theories, but because carriers will realize it’s too expensive and users will balk at $400 USD mobile bills to fund this pointless adventure. I suspect they’ll be forced to redo or abandon the emperor’s new clothes when they’re discovered to not be a substitute for a winter coat.