So I have been wondering for the longest time why my phone that was using 5G fine in my home country is always on 4G here.
Contacted povo (the sim company I use) and asked if it is a coverage problem or something else.
I found out this way that it is simply a case of the phone going with 4G since 5G is too slow. So nothing wrong on my side, only that Japan is way behind.
I thought this may be the case where I live, fair enough. But it is the same wherever in Japan I went. Be it the middle of Tokyo or a somewhat well developed inaka zone.
Is there a logic to this? Or just another case of Japan being slow.
Edit: I want to correct it by saying that I just set my phone to NR only to only connect to 5G and found out there is actually no 5G in the Kamata area, not that it is weak or anything.
by Radusili
5 comments
you’re on povo. switch to real au or docomo/ahamo and enable 5G SA. also use domestic phones or phones with all the local 5G bands.
If you are on one of those tier 2 providers, you don’t get priority on the networks. Only those tier 1 providers like Softbank, Docomo or Au would probably have fewer issues like this.
What exact model of phone are you using? AU’s 5g bands seem to be n28, 77, 78, and 257. Does your phone support those?
Are you in a big city? Don’t quote me on that but as far as I know 5G isn’t really optimized for densely populated urban areas due to its limited penetration power.
None of the 5G I tried actually speedy at all. I use Ahamo in Japan, docomo Home5G at home (Tokyo) and tried many other 5g network in various cities (HK, London, Vancouver, Singapore, KL) NOTHING is anything close to “speedy”. All the apps even Google map still respond as like 4G. And overall more unstable than 4G. It feel like when you are using 5Ghz WiFi in your home but few rooms away your router.