Mint Mobile: 4G vs 5G UC
This is a follow-up on an earlier post which was an observation of a change in the mobile data service I was seeing from Mint Mobile here in Houston. I had another occasion to be off-site today, although much closer…
Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen 7: Upgrading WWAN from 4G LTE to 5G
My laptop, a 2019 Lenovo X1 Carbon, was ordered with the optional WWAN interface. At the time, the state-of-the-art was a 4G radio which I added to our Mint Mobile account. I only need to use mobile data occasionally, but it has proven very handy.
Several months ago I noted that it suffered very poor performance at a meeting off-site. This even as my mobile phone was working much better.
Earlier this week, while I was taking Stella to an appointment in another part of the city, the laptop reported being completely offline. It was wholly unable to connect via 4G. I looked at my mobile phone, which reported connected via “5G UC.”
Mobile Data Access: 4G vs 5G
I don’t get out much these days. At least not compared to years ago, when I was almost constantly travelling to and from various broadcast facilities. Nonetheless, based upon that past experience, in 2019 when I last ordered a laptop, I opted to get the 4G LTE wireless radio built in. It’s effectively the third person on our Mint Mobile family plan.
Truth is, I don’t use the service very much. But the carrying cost on Mint Mobile is so low that I keep it active. There have been times when we had internet or power outages lasting a few hours. In those cases, 4G embedded in the laptop has been genuinely handy.
Over the past year, I’ve also used it when going to offsite meetings related to my involvement with our local civic association. Such was the case last week. I was attending a meeting of Super Neighborhood 15 at the Historic Fire House on 12th Street. They might have Wi-Fi there. I don’t know. It has never even occurred to me to ask. As is my habit, I just power up and turn on the 4G.
Rebranding Networks: Wi-Fi 5 vs 5G
The hype around 5G mobile networks seems to have the Wi-Fi Alliance crowd a little nervous. In early October they launched a rebranding initiative to make the alphabet soup of Wi-Fi easier for grannies to understand. Were once we refereed to 802.11a/b/c/n/ac and/or 802.11ax…now, to be Wi-Fi certified, the correct terminology is:
- Wi-Fi 4 (formerly 802.11n)
- Wi-Fi 5 (formerly 802.11ac)
- Wi-Fi 6 (formerly 802.11ax)
The entire guide to this new marketecture, which includes a library of symbols for use on packaging, is here. It’s worth a glance. Remember, the point of the exercise is to bring clarity to the oh-so-confusing world of Wi-Fi.