Verizon has deleted a tweet that suggested customers who were concerned about 5G draining their device’s battery life should simply turn 5G off.
The US operator’s customer service account wrote: “Are you noticing that your battery life is draining faster than normal? One way to help conserve battery life is to turn on LTE. Just go to Cellular > Cellular Data Options > Voice & Data and tap LTE.”
Inevitably, Twitter users pointed out that electing the LTE option would mean their device would not be able to access the ultrafast 5G speeds they were paying for. Verizon responded with a seemingly unrelated comment about speed diagnostics and then deleted the original Tweet.
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Verizon 5G battery
While 5G delivers undeniable advances in speed and capability, the episode will do little to ease concerns among more conservative users about relative power consumption.
Verizon was one of the first operators in the world to launch 5G back in 2018, using high-band millimetre wave (mmWave) spectrum to power Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) broadband services in many major cities.
It has since launched mobile broadband services, expanding coverage through Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DDS) technology that allows frequencies to be shared with Verizon’s existing 4G frequencies.
It has also rolled out mmWave in more cities and the company has also secured valuable mid-band 3.5-3.9GHz ‘C-Band’ spectrum’ assets to boost 5G rollout.
Alongside coverage improvements, more power-efficient devices and advances in battery technology will have a positive long-term impact on consumption.
In the UK, operators are using a combination of mid and low-band spectrum to support their 5G services.
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Via The Verge
