5G from Vodafone Netherlands is “misleading”
“Misleading for consumers and companies,” is how the international Vodafone director calls the way in which the Dutch branch of his company offers 5G. It is not known whether he was also aware of this.
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Director: 5G from Vodafone Netherlands is “misleading”
This statement was made by Nick Read, chairman of the board of the Vodafone Group, during an explanation of the company’s quarterly figures (around 15:40). He said this in response to an analyst question about how the provider plans to roll out the 5G network.
“Effectively it is showing you a 5G symbol, but delivering 4G performance,” said the Vodafone Group business leader. “As a company, we have said: we don’t want that, because it is misleading for consumers and companies. What you want is 5G built in the right way, with corresponding 5G performance. ”
The Vodafone prominent said this in response to a question from a telecom analyst about Dynamic Spectrum Sharing, DDS for short. Providers use 4G frequencies to offer 5G.
Read’s answer is remarkable, because the Dutch branch of Vodafone, which has been officially called VodafoneZiggo for several years, uses dds in our country. It is not clear whether the director was aware of this at the time.
That’s the way it is with frequencies
This is the case. The Dutch branch of Vodafone offers 5G via the 1800Mhz frequency by ‘sharing’ this 4G band. When you contact this via a 5G smartphone with a matching Vodafone subscription, your device will show a 5G icon at the top of the network bar.
The director of the supra-Vodafone group finds this misleading, because 5G basically has its own frequency bands: 700Mhz, 3.5GHz and 26GHz. The lowest frequency (700MHz) is now available in the Netherlands, but the 3.5GHz band, which should ensure that the network is considerably faster, does not work at all here.
The 3.5 GHz frequency is not expected to be auctioned until 2022. Providers, such as Vodafone, can participate in an auction of the Dutch state to gain access. It is not yet known when the 26GHz frequency will go under the hammer. The Dutch branch of Vodafone has not yet responded to Read’s statement.
More about 5G
There is currently a lot of advertising about all the benefits of 5G, but for now this is mainly future music. In the Netherlands, only the 700MHz frequency is available and it excels especially in range, so that you have a telephone connection everywhere, but not in speed.
The promises of 5G therefore have to be largely fulfilled. More and more Android smartphones do, however, support the new network standard. That’s nice, because that way you are ready for the future. Our overview of cheap 5G smartphones proves that 5G does not have to be expensive at all.
