Technology

You’ve landed back in Britain.  Passport control done.  Bag collected.  You look at your phone and somehow it still says the name of the foreign network you were using abroad. …

Dynamic Spectrum Sharing, usually shortened to DSS, lets a mobile network run 4G and 5G on the same block of spectrum.  Instead of switching an entire frequency band from LTE to 5G…

Yes, a phone case can reduce 5G signal or speed, but most ordinary plastic, silicone or leather cases are unlikely to make a dramatic difference.  The bigger troublemakers are cases containing large amounts of metal, badly…

Yes, a VPN can slow down 5G mobile data.  Sometimes the difference is tiny. Other times, you can watch a perfectly respectable 200Mbps 5G connection drop to something that suddenly…

Because your phone would rather give you slower 5G than cook itself.  Modern smartphones constantly monitor internal temperature.  If things get too warm, the phone can deliberately reduce performance, slow charging and even lower the power used…

VoNR stands for Voice over New Radio.  It’s basically the 5G version of VoLTE.  VoLTE moved normal phone calls onto 4G. VoNR moves them onto a 5G Standalone network, so the phone can handle…

You are happily browsing on 5G, somebody rings you, and the little 5G icon at the top of the screen suddenly becomes 4G or LTE.  Then the call ends and 5G pops back up.  It…

Because 5G data and 5G voice are not necessarily the same service.  Your phone can sit on a 5G network all afternoon, download apps at high speed and still make every…

If the battery gets low and your shiny 5G icon suddenly turns into 4G, the network hasn’t necessarily gone wrong.  Your phone may be doing it deliberately.  5G can use more power in certain situations,…

First, an important correction:  Dual SIM does not automatically disable 5G on modern phones.  Current Pixel phones from the Pixel 4a (5G) onwards can connect to 5G while operating in…

Because a proper speed test has to push your connection hard enough to find out how fast it really is.  That means downloading and uploading actual data.  And the faster your 5G…

You can sit in exactly the same chair, run two 5G speed tests five minutes apart and get results that look like they came from different networks.  One says 240Mbps.  The next says 83Mbps. …