5G MOFI, worth the wait?

[turnip4545]

I need stable, high availability internet, but only very low bandwidth. I can do just fine with 100KBp/s. But again it needs to be stable.
I'd like to go as far as possible away from cities, towns etc. Not interested in stealth camping. My dream is somewhere in rural Texas, Arizona, NM, Utah. So my needs seem to also include something that can reach for large distances.

I was looking at purchasing this device from MOFI and using it with Tmobile data only plan SIM
https://mofinetwork.com/product/mofi5500-5gxelte-em7411-combo/

On the page I do however see
[font=Lato, sans-serif]Note this router is not 5G cellular capable and cannot get 5G signals.
We will offer our 5G model that will be available June/July 2021[/font]

My understanding with regards to 5G is that it's high bandwidth, short range band. So it's not clear to me if I'll even need it or be able to use it in the places where I need to go. Can someone give me advise if the new router MOFI is alluding to is even worth waiting or can I just purchase MOFI5500(no 5G) and be just as well off?

thank you advance.

 

[mattvei]

wait til you can get Elon's LEO Starlink system (about a year). That with a Google voice account will solve all our nomad connection issues

 

[doublegregg]

u guys prob no a lot more than me... i been trying to get 'up to speed' watching these guys... wondered where you guys are getting your intel..

they had one video on whether to upgrade to 5g now, or later (in a year, when the technology is stable, and manufacturing has caught up).. they seemed to say do it now, you get your device now, but it may be outmoded in a year or two, buy it later --- i guess you're stuck with your old equipment for longer... this video is not it, alas, i couldn't find it. but it does deal with 5g... they seem knowledgeable to me -------- thoughts?

 

[mpruet]

The technology for mobile internet/phone service is rapidly changing.  I wouldn’t hold out for the starlink solution, although I think eventually it will be the most popular.  The folks in the beta program are commenting just how good it is, but the beta program has a limited number of users so we don’t know yet what the performance will be when a large number of folks are using it.  The contention could be rather high.  Remember that in order to provide internet service, you have a potential contention on the satellite itself, and then you also have potential contention of communication on the transmission between the satellite and the earthbound gateway receiver to the internet itself.  Myself, I wouldn’t get too excited about starlink until I knew what the performance was going to be once there were a large number of users. 

For now, I would just get a data solution with the three main carriers - Verizon, AT&T, tMobile.  4G/LTE will be around for a long time because it fits more in rural areas and there are just too many devices that don’t support 5G.  But I would be prepared to change plans within 5 years. 

The main impact of starlink will be in the rural areas. Most of those areas tend to be CenturyLink customers and the best internet they can get is DSL.  DSL tends to have low download speeds and also is not very predictable.  I grew up in rural Alabama and still have contacts there.  They are constantly complaining how poor their service is.  I also have a condo in the Colorado forests with DSL.  I was thrilled to discover that I could use a Verizon JetPack here rather than CenturyLink DSL.  My performance is vastly better than before.  So I wouldn’t be too surprised to see rural stationary folks buying into StarLink.