[harpratap]

> If someone was willing to pay for the hundreds of tiny cell sites required.

We are already doing that, it's called WiFi. 5G SA is nothing but a souped up WiFi signal, and it should be treated as such and not how we have been treating 4G up until this point. Telcos need to change their business model otherwise the tech giants might end up eating their lunch

[mytailorisrich]

WiFi is a 'simple' system designed for a few, static devices.

Cellular systems are designed for many more devices and, crucially, full mobility. These are orders of magnitude more complex than WiFi.

Then, specifically 5G is about increasing capacity (number of devices), reducing delays, and stringent reliability.

[harpratap]

There's nothing within the 5G spec itself that commands that every single cell site needs to be a massive MIMO supporting 1000s of users at once. Making a micro cell supporting just a family home is enough, then something a bit higher for small businesses supporting 10-100 users, then the likes of Starbucks can deploy bigger ones and finally the Sports stadiums and Corporate offices gets the really high end stuff.

Companies like Rakuten have already shown it's cheap enough to distribute 4G femtocells for free [1] to your users while increasing your coverage

[1] - https://network.mobile.rakuten.co.jp/guide/rakuten-casa/conn...

[PaulDavisThe1st]

T-Mobile continues to quietly make available their "CellSpot" femtocell for a US$25 deposit, which is good because it's the only way we would have actual cell service here in a rural part of New Mexico. It is doubly good because whatever server T-Mobile uses for their wifi calling service(s) is the biggest dumpster fire in their entire business.

[r00fus]

I get fantastic wifi calling service with TMO. Maybe your home internet has latency issues?

[PaulDavisThe1st]

Non-TMO VOIP and video calling works like a charm. By contrast, TMO Wifi calling can't deal with MMS SMS, drops calls and generally is flaky as shit. The cellspot makes all of that work just fine, and is better than driving 2 miles to get to a reception point.

[mytailorisrich]

Again, 4G/5G are not WiFi, they are much more complex and reliable systems and support mobility, even if of course they can now be used in the same way as WiFi ("he who can do more can do less").

[godzillabrennus]

The tech giants spy on us to sell advertising inside of their products. If Verizon starts listening into my calls to sell me products I would switch to any carrier who wasn’t doing that.

[cj]

Verizon may not listen to your calls, but they do track the IP addresses your phone connects to and what you do on the internet to profile you.

Source: PII data request of my own Verizon account, containing detailed demographic data, intent/interest data, and IP addresses of websites I had visited.

Edit: Anyone interested in doing the same, here's the link: https://www.verizon.com/support/download-and-view-vpd-file/

[pooper]

This sounds very familiar. I hope they get a hundred billion dollar fine and life in prison for the CEO and the board if they do this because they have already been fined before for this.

> Verizon is settling with the FCC over its use of an ad targeting technology known as a "supercookie," which tracks the websites visited by phones on its network. Supercookies allow websites to better target ads to visitors with Verizon cellphone service; but those visitors — for a period of time — weren't informed of the tracking or given the option to opt out. Because of that, Verizon will pay a fine of $1.35 million and will now have to receive customer permission before sharing tracking data with other companies or even within its organization, including with sites owned by AOL.

- The Verge

Underlying FTC press release

Full Title: FCC Settles Verizon "Supercookie" Probe, Requires Consumer Opt-In for Third Parties

https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-settles-verizon-supercookie...

> WASHINGTON, March 7, 2016 – The Federal Communications Commission today announced a settlement resolving an investigation into Verizon Wireless’s practice of inserting unique identifier headers or so-called “supercookies” into its customers’ mobile Internet traffic without their knowledge or consent. These unique, undeletable identifiers – referred to as UIDH – are inserted into web traffic and used to identify customers in order to deliver targeted ads from Verizon and other third parties. As a result of the investigation and settlement, Verizon Wireless is notifying consumers about its targeted advertising programs, will obtain customers’ opt-in consent before sharing UIDH with third parties, and will obtain customers’ opt-in or opt-out consent before sharing UIDH internally within the Verizon corporate family.

[Dylan16807]

> 5G SA is nothing but a souped up WiFi signal,

Let's not conflate too many things. Maybe current deployments are in that frequency band, but "5G SA" just means the connection is legitimately 5G.

In theory all 4G frequencies will get converted to 5G, and it will be a moderate improvement. Separately 5G is expanding into the wifi arena and the ultra fast near-line-of-sight arena. But "SA" is not how you tell the difference. It will all be SA eventually.

[InvaderFizz]

> Separately 5G is expanding into the wifi arena

On LTE this is called LAA. As far as I can tell, the term is being kept for 5G as well.