I'm not sure what we need more speed at this point. I've gotten as high as 216Mbps with T-Mobile using an unlocked (non-TMO), ratty S7 phone. Typical for me is ~35Mbps, which is more than sufficient for anything I've ever needed it for. For that matter, I only have 10Mbps connections at my homes and it's more than enough to do 4K.
Originally Posted by
tmiw
Home internet would also make using fixed exterior antennas viable, so signal strength might not be as big of an issue with mmWave as it is when trying to use it on a phone.
I've been involved with Wireless ISPs for the past 15+ years... We do use high Ghz antennas/radios...BUT... it's not reliable over long distances. For my office connection, there is a ~60GHz link, but we're only 0.2 miles away, direct line-of-sight, and there are 24GHz and 5GHz backup radios which we fall back on when there's fog/rain in the area.
It's been ~25 or so years since I played with media compression...but it was thought that MP3 was the best audio compression we could do. I came up with a modified form of it which gave an additional 60-70% reduction over MP3. Your mobile phone has this codec today. Unfortunately, I didn't patent it at the time. ::facepalm:: I have no doubt that we're far from done with data compression algorithms.
Originally Posted by
lsquare
It’s embarrassing that the US can’t provide every one of its own citizens with decent internet infrastructure. It’s ridiculous that Asia have better internet infrastructure. I know cost is often cited an example. However, it’s not like the US is a poor country.
...and having spent quite a bit of time in Alaska, physics and logistics are a formidable problem. In an ideal world, we'd all like to pay $20/mo for gigabit fiber with no limits. Even if the telcos weren't squandering and profiteering, this still wouldn't be a reality. Infrastructure isn't sexy. Infrastructure won't win votes. Infrastructure is expensive. In this area there are still a ton of people on wells and septic systems, despite being in the middle of the city, surrounded by retail, restaurants, businesses, etc. One city near here has been forcing people off wells & septic systems and onto city water/sewers, charging them $20k for the "privilege". You can get a fiber strung anywhere in this country...but being able to afford it is a completely different story.