Sprint has terrible coverage even with sub-6GHz bands ... 

2G will still be needed for vending machines and other IoT devices, the new baseline might very well be LTE in the future ... 

Wireless ISP sales rep stopped by yesterday since we're in the new '5G' coverage zone. Not a lot of new or hopeful info though.

He told me 350GB was likely to remain the cap until next year if not longer, but that there were ongoing internal talks about offering unlimited, but that will definitely cost over $100 per month based on existing services and package pricing so he tells me. I asked about if free downloading throughout the early morning hours would ever be offered and he said no, not from their company ever, which isn't a surprise because they are top dog here in Canuckistan. I then suggested since they have a 100GB base package for $69, and 350GB for $79, that they should offer something like 500GB for another $10 maybe, because many around here won't pay over $100, even for unlimited. He said a higher fixed data cap was quite unlikely. He followed that up by telling me slower speeds aren't happening either due to mandates to increase base speeds to a min of 25mbps. So basically pay overages over $100 per month now, or eventually get unlimited for over $100 per month later. While too many options aren't good, just a couple isn't cutting it here.

He also informed me that it's actually some hybrid 4G LTE tech that's easily upgradeable to 5G in the future when they feel they need faster speeds and the pricing can be more reasonable. He also said this tech was much more capable in terms of penetrating foliage and their actual serviceable coverage is extremely high. He was using his company phone and some app to check signal which fluctuated between 3 and 4 bars on the side of the house facing the direction of the tower. He actually let me take it up the TV antenna tower to check up there, and at second story roof level I already had consistent 5 bars even though there's a ton of tree tops blocking the cell tower. There's another 20 ft of tower above that as well so signal strength likely wouldn't ever be a problem.

Just going to have to wait and see. I'm not all the hopeful though since odds are good most homes around here will be fine with a 350GB cap, so offering a higher data package won't really be necessary, unless it's a much larger problem elsewhere, and they decide to offer a data increase everywhere or unlimited.

The fiber network program that's using Gov money to bring fiber to rural area's in my province, just had a few updates about new fiber coming to our area. Sure enough, it's not coming here. Instead of tapping off the line that's about 1.5km to the west and going through our area and picking up about 60 customers along the way to the town just southeast of us, they are tapping off a line 3km northwest, going about 2km north, 4km east, then 5km south, to get to that town. While that route travels along main roads, the amount of homes along that route wouldn't be any more than the 60 or so it would travel through here, if they went through here instead. It's the same company doing all the construction work as last year, and the same ISP who's providing internet through the lines. The work is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year. At that point, my little area will be completely surrounded by fiber, because why not?

Over the last couple of months, the large ISP that brought 4G LTE wireless internet to the area has been calling or stopping by every couple of weeks trying to get us to sign up. The only thing they've changed, is the 3 month slightly cheaper price they use to get you on board, which has been extended to 6 months. Apparently the message hasn't gotten through that a 350GB cap simply isn't enough.

At least ever since the 4G LTE came to the area, our DSL connection has been getting worse and clearly throttled again. Can't catch a break it seems.

I really don't get how they get away with calling that 5G.

We had wireless 3-5 mb internet to my parents rural house (the closest town has like 250 people and only dial up was available before this) in like...2005-2006. This was about 2-3 miles from the tower the dude put up on his lot. This was comparable to 3G service available at the time.

I'd expect anything labeled as 5G to get like 250+ mb

Am I missing something or is that speed pretty slow for 5G? I thought 5G was supposed to be like Gigabit speeds (or 100+ MB/s). I'd cancel my 5G service if that was the speed I was getting.

Most of the time what I've seen is it's typically mentioned somewhere as "up to" whatever speed. Meaning the tech is capable of 5G, even if it's not true 5G now because it needs an upgrade to be true 5G, and the speed you could get could be up to their highest advertised speed, even if during the hours you really require it, it's half that.

They get away with it pretty easy, especially around places like here, because here you have little option. If you want a reasonable higher speed, you have to go with the single ISP that's able to offer you something better than you already have. Many of those area's have such poor quality service or such slow speeds, they'll basically take anything you throw at them for the most part.

All these ISP's boning people are so screwed when all the decent satellite internet starts coming out. No more of this "it's the only ISP available" bogus, or severely throttled speeds.

You envision it being like decent satellite TV, I wonder?

I mean, there's no particular reason any satellite provider should be better considering the inherent signal and noise problems of long distance wireless communication. Or short distance, even, if you like me know the difference of quality between bluetooth mouse and headphone, and their wired counterparts. Seems like you hate your available ISPs so much that you're projecting your hopes into something that isn't real.

My internet now is perfectly fine (I no longer live in a rural area).

But it really isn't some crazy thought. The low orbit satellite internet that companies are rushing for will have massively lower pings (and higher speeds) than current satellite offerings.

Considering the local Telco my parents now have offers a whopping 7mb service (and is in the process of filing bankruptcy; the company that offered wireless conveniently decided he never wanted to upgrade his service after he first released it)...it isn't an "if" the satellite internet will be better...it is just a question of when it becomes available and they (and likely many neighbors) will be instant subscribers 

So you download your games on your phone connection? Don't those have data caps?