PC Mag Op-Ed on Why Telecoms Are Telling Customers to Turn Off 5G

By B.N. Frank

Tests have determined that 5G service hasn’t been reliable or faster where it’s been installed (see 1, 2, 3, 4). Not only that – carriers have been advising that customers turn off 5G to not drain their phone batteries.

Why Are Carriers Telling Us to Turn Off 5G?

Does 5G really offer so little that support staff think we might as well turn it off?

When carriers are telling people to turn off 5G to save battery, there’s a problem, and it’s not just power drain.

Both Verizon and T-Mobile were caught this week telling their users to turn off 5G to save battery, a sort of egg-on-face, foot-in-mouth situation that maybe we shouldn’t read too much into. But I will! I will read more into it, because when a carrier’s tech support people and its marketing people are saying opposite things, something’s clearly up.

Verizon started the ball rolling with an unfortunate, now-deleted tweet telling people to “turn on [4G] LTE” on their iPhones to conserve battery. On a recent iPhone, that means turning off 5G. T-Mobile’s sin appeared on a slew of device support pages, which suggest going down from 5G to 2G to preserve battery, which is really amusing. That will make your phone basically not work. T-Mobile has reduced its 2G network to an absolute minimum, mostly to support machine-to-machine devices like point-of-sale systems.

The relationship between 5G and battery drain is…tricky. The first-generation 5G phones based on the Qualcomm X50 modem frequently overheated and consumed battery very quickly, but those problems appeared to be solved with the current X55 and X60 modems. That doesn’t mean 5G mode is as battery-efficient as 4G mode is, even on new phones. The current problems are more in network design.

All the carriers are guilty of often asking phones to connect to more distant 5G signals rather than nearer 4G-only signals, so they can show 5G coverage. That burns battery. T-Mobile has a long-range, low-band 5G network that uses a shorter-range, mid-band 4G network as its control channel, and your phone sometimes has to strain to hear the control channel. That burns battery. The DSS system Verizon and AT&T both use as part of their “nationwide 5G” systems was shown in a recent paper to reduce data rates and increase interference. You know what increased interference burns? Battery.

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Of course, concerns about 5G aren’t isolated to energy consumption and poor service. Exposure to 5G is NOT SAFE. In fact, doctors, scientists, and telecom whistleblowers have endorsed a petition to boycott 5G phones.

The majority of scientists worldwide oppose 5G deployment. Cities AND entire countries have taken action to ban, delay, halt, and limit installation AS WELL AS issue moratoriums due to health, safety, environmental and economic risks.

Americans opposed to 5G may sign this letter asking President Biden and Vice President Harris to stop deployment.