What is the difference between 5G and 5G Ultra

[Lee_Paul]

Hi all,

Can anybody please clarify the difference between 5G and 5G Ultra as the website is very unclear to me.

I am currently 1 mile by road (0.6 miles as the crow flies) from my local 5G Tower and connect to 5G with a full signal on my phone. My phone is not on the list of supported 5G Ultra devices so i'm unsure what benefits it would offer. The Vodafone website states both 5G and 5G Ultra claim to be 10x faster than 4G and offer speeds around 150-200Mbps with a peak of 1Gbps.  As i understand, 5G Ultra is meant to be more energy efficient and be available to an extra 1 million customers.  How is it able to do this?

Although my handset is not on the list of approved 5G Ultra devices, I generally get a 5G signal in a lot of places i visit and the latency is regularly 20ms-30ms with download speeds of 200Mbps to 500Mbps. I also have Smart 5G enabled so it doesn't activate 5G until data throughput is required hence saving the battery life massively.

What is 5G Ultra doing differently as surely it would need the 3500mhz frequency still in order get the fastest data speeds.  Also what is the reason Vodafone are restricting which phones can use this 5G Ultra service? I am using the 'Nothing' Phone 2 which supports pretty much every 5G and 4G band possible so i'm pretty sure the phone has the potential to work with it.

Any advice would be massively appreciated.

Kind Regards

Lee
  

[Effie]

Hey @Lee_Paul I hope you're doing well! We have a dedicated page on our website where you can read all about 5G Ultra and how it works. Check it out here! 

[Lee_Paul]

Hi Effie, 

Thanks for getting back to me regarding this. I did mention in my first paragraph that I've already been on the website and found it doesn't answer my more technical questions. It is very vague on what the difference is and how it is achieving it. I also wanted to know why all phones aren't supported. Is it something only certain devices have the capability of doing or a decision by Vodafone?

The website states there is no difference in download speed between 5G and 5G Ultra. It only says 5G ultra is available to an extra 1 million customers and uses 25% less power. I will ask again how is it doing this? Presumably it is still running on the same frequencies (Bands)?

Kind Regards 

Lee

[Effie]

Apologies @Lee_Paul For the more technical questions, you would be best speaking to our dedicated Mobile Tech Team on as they will have access to the more in depth information that you are looking for. 

I am just able to advise you that 5G Ultra has it's own dedicated network so is not reliant on the 4G infrastructure in the way that regular 5G is. That's how it is able to offer more connectivity and better battery performance; the 5G Ultra network has been designed with phone performance in mind. 

Not all phones are compatible with 5G Ultra as it is a new network type and connections require certain components and software which not all manufacturers are implementing. As 5G Ultra becomes more widely known and used, it is highly likely that more manufacturers will implement the necessary technologies in their devices so more phones will become compatible. 

We do have a YouTube video as a companion to the 5G page and it may clear up some more of your technical questions, but for more answers, I would definitely recommend speaking to the Tech teams. I'm sorry I couldn't be more help! 

[Lee_Paul]

Hi Effie, 

Thanks again for offering further advice, I will speak to the dedicated mobile tech team when I have a moment. 

From the statement regarding 5G ultra not relying on 4G in the same way 5G NSA does, i would suggest it is 5G standalone. I therefore would expect the download speeds and latency to be far superior to the standard 5G offering from Vodafone. 

My current device has a fairly recent Snapdragon processor the same as some of the latest Samsung phones on the list of supported devices so I would guarantee my phone would be technically capable. 

I will have a watch of the YouTube video later and see if it offers any further clarification. 

Once again, thankyou for your help. 

All the best, 

Lee

[LRZ_OWK]

I've never been to the UK, I'm from Germany and have to do with mobile networks at Vodafone Germany.  After reading the 5G Ultra text linked above, I have more questions than before. It doesn't tell me what NR frequencies belong to 5G Ultra (just N78?). I would guess  from the tab ,,supported devices'' it's really just N78 because iPhones are not supported. In Germany all NR frequencies (n3, n28, n78) are called 5G+  , however just low and midband (3/28)  in that SA configuration are supported by iPhones - and all newer Androids support N78 SA in addition. So normal 5G seems like to be  5G NSA, like here, it's 4G + n78 on iPhones. As I only test with iPhones here, I don't really know what the expected performance on N78 SA on Android is - but don't expect higher speeds than with 5G NSA!!! They're telling you this on their website by claiming 5G up to 1 Gbps which is missing under 5G Ultra - because we're now in SA 5G! So we are not aggregating with the 4G capacity bands anymore! Just expect lower battery life and lower Ping (+ lowband 5G n28 here has far greater range than 4G). I'd love to test Vodafone UKs 5G configuration soon which you can view in your telephone settings the connection stats. Normal 5G vs 5G SA (Ultra/+) in the screenshots. If you have any questions from the technical point of view let me know!

Greetings

Oliver

[Cynric]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G_NR_frequency_bands

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G

HTH, HAND