5G "steals traffic" is easy to turn on and difficult to turn off?

 On November 9th, the topic of "5G switch canceled" continued to hang on the hot search list, and many users reported that after the mobile phone system was updated, the 4G and 5G switch in the settings was canceled. This change may be a requirement from operators to increase 5G usage among subscribers. When interviewing mobile phone users and operators, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily learned that some users do have the need to turn off 5G, but they can't find the switch, and the operator staff said that there is no need to turn off 5G.

From the perspective of the industry, with the construction of communication infrastructure, the problems of high 5G package tariffs and insignificant network speed improvement are no longer prominent, and the boundaries of 4G and 5G are gradually blurred, and the focus of competition in the communication industry is quietly shifting.

Where to find the 5G switch

Although 5G mobile phones have been popularized, but for many users, the upgrade of the network makes people "reluctant", white-collar Ms. Liu told the Beijing Business Daily reporter that due to her busy work, she is worried about the delay of WeChat messages, this situation has been more than once before, and she feels that it has improved after turning off 5G, so she does not use the 5G network as much as possible.

At present, Ms. Liu is using an iPhone14 Pro Max mobile phone, which supports 5G network, although Ms. Liu recalled to reporters that she did not take the initiative to ask the operator for a network upgrade, but when her calling card was transferred from the previous iPhone7 to the new mobile phone, the screen automatically displayed 5G network, for which she needed to select "Cellular Network" in "Settings", and then turn off roaming in "Cellular Data Options" to cut off 5G, Ms. Liu's feeling is "very troublesome, not easy to find".

A reporter from Beijing Business Daily visited offline stores and found that turning off 5G is indeed a problem, for example, on the OPPO rene series of mobile phones, users need to select "version information" in "settings", and then click on the version number continuously, and choose to turn off 5G in "developer options". The operation method is similar on the new Honor mobile phone, at least three steps to find the 5G switch, and now on the Xiaomi 13 ultra, users who want to turn off 5G need to enter the relevant code on the dial page, similar to the vivo X90 series.

The staff also told reporters that there are indeed customers who buy mobile phones for a period of time and return to the store to consult 5G switch methods, for some customers, the "hidden operation" of continuously clicking on the version number is unexpected, and they don't know how to turn off 5G for a long time.

Mr. Tang, a white-collar worker, has such troubles, the vivo mobile phone he used before has the function of switching the network with one click, and can also be controlled by voice, but after changing to a new mobile phone, although it is the same brand, the 5G switch is difficult to find, and it took him a long time to understand how to operate.

As for why he stays away from 5G, Mr. Tang said that he usually does not rely on mobile phones, mainly uses laptops for work, and game consoles for entertainment. What's more, there are wireless networks in your home and office, but if you turn on 5G, you will find that many times mobile phones give priority to using 5G, which is a waste of WiFi.

Mr. Tang told reporters that since 5G cannot be switched on and off on the mobile phone with one key, he simply turns off the operator's network in the office, so that the mobile phone has to connect to WiFi.

Who's to blame for "stealing traffic".

Beijing Business Daily reporter found that users' complaints about 5G are mostly focused on the problem of "fee traffic", some users said that after turning on the 5G network, the speed of traffic usage has been significantly accelerated, and some users even suspect that 5G "steals traffic".

Some users told the Beijing Business Daily reporter that the main card traffic was used up in less than a month after the conversion to the 5G network, and additional traffic packages need to be bought every month, before the 4G network, it feels that the monthly 30G, 40G traffic is completely enough, but now it is often overrun.

Ms. Liu said that in addition to watching movies and television dramas with her mobile phone, she usually makes video calls, and does not have the habit of opening hotspots to share the network, so after finding that the traffic exceeds the limit, she asked the operator to query the data, and found that several times it consumed 100MB in a few minutes.

Beijing Business Daily reporter contacted and interviewed China Mobile, China Unicom, the staff of both said that the problem of stealing traffic is not the responsibility of the operator, and indeed many users have reported the problem, but in many cases it is caused by the fact that the background application of the mobile phone is not closed, for example, some applications will be automatically downloaded in the background, in addition, the mobile phone system may also be automatically updated, and it is not excluded that the system will automatically upload the data backup to the cloud, and the above actions will lose traffic.

However, the relevant staff also said that if there is any doubt about the use of traffic in the phone card, you can appeal, China Mobile staff said that users can download China Mobile App, calculate the excess traffic fee that has been deducted, and select the "cost question" column in "My complaint", fill in the content of the complaint clearly and submit it, and the staff will automatically return to visit, generally 1-3 working days will give the processing result, it should be noted that the content of the complaint is the cost of the past year.

For the tariff problem, communication expert Ma Jihua analyzed that on the one hand, users need to pay close attention to network tariffs, find problems and appeal to the operator in time, on the other hand, do not have to worry too much about the problem of 5G traffic, theoretically the amount of traffic used depends on the downloaded, read content, such as 1G video, whether it is opened with 5G or 4G The traffic consumption remains the same, but because the 5G speed can theoretically reach 20 times that of 4G, the content loading speed is faster, even if the user only watches the first few minutes of the video, All video traffic is consumed.

However, experts also pointed out that in the case of smooth 4G network, the video loading speed will not be much different from 5G, and the impact of personal usage habits on tariffs is not obvious. For example, now that the screen of the mobile phone is becoming more and more high-definition, the bitrate of the video is also rising, and in the game, high image quality has almost become the standard, meeting the most basic smooth, no jamming requirements, and the amount of traffic will not be too small.

Distinguishing between packages is "not necessary"

In fact, the finger of the problem has been pointed at the operators, after the words of Bruce Lee, vice president of Huawei's mobile phone product line, attracted widespread attention, saying that the "5G shortcut" was canceled at the request of China's three major operators, because operators found that many users bought 5G phones but turned off their 5G.

The staff of China Mobile and China Unicom said that they did not know about it. When asked whether the 5G phone card can be transferred back to 4G, the relevant staff said that it is not necessary, whether it is a 5G network does not depend on the phone card, as long as the user's mobile phone support, it will automatically join the 5G network, in addition, it depends on the distribution of local base stations, whether there is 5G signal coverage.

As for the problem of high 5G tariffs, the staff of China Mobile and China Unicom said that the cost of 5G in the package on sale is not necessarily higher than that of 4G, and it depends on what services are included in the package.

Taking China Mobile as an example, its 4G "Global Pass Premium Plan" package is 288-588 yuan/month, while the "5G Enjoy Package" is 78-598 yuan/month, which will enjoy different rights and interests according to the actual package usage fee of the month, for example, in the 5G package, the actual monthly consumption of not less than 78 yuan can enjoy 200M broadband, and not less than 118 yuan can enjoy the global pass-through card.

Industry views point out that in personal terminals, 5G, 4G gap is not a common problem, and in previous years, higher 5G tariffs did dissuade many users, operators have long been aware of this, blurring the boundaries of 5G and 4G.

Fu Liang, an independent analyst at TMT, told Beijing Business Daily that operators could even cancel the "5G package" statement. This is because 5G package users can use 5G, while non-5G plan users cannot, a thing of the past. Now that all users can use 5G, there is no point in "5G package users". Furthermore, operators' packages should no longer be divided into "5G packages" and "4G packages", as long as the terminal supports them, the original 4G package users should also be able to access the 5G network at a lower rate.

It is undeniable that the promotion of 5G network and the expansion of user groups are still the focus of operators, in the monthly report of the three major operators, the number of 5G users has always been the key, but its increment is not only limited to individual users, in the wave of smart home and smart home, home 5G broadband has broader opportunities.

For example, China Mobile told Beijing Business Daily that in the first half of 2023, the company's household market revenue will reach 64.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.3%; The number of home broadband customers reached 255 million, with a net increase of 11.15 million, leading the industry. The number of gigabit home broadband customers reached 60.36 million, with a penetration rate of 23.7%, indicating huge room for upgrading and development. The number of mobile HD customers reached 201 million, the number of intelligent networking customers increased by 50.1% year-on-year, the number of home security customers increased by 40.6% year-on-year, and the number of HDICT solution customers for new scenarios such as smart communities and digital villages reached 20.88 million. The contribution of smart home applications to the growth continued to increase, with the average household income per household reaching RMB43.3.

Industry views point out that with the development of 5G communication, its application has also changed dramatically, after all, the growth of the personal side has always been limited, and the family, enterprise users and even the industrial field is a broader world, and the forefront of the communication industry change is happening here.

Beijing Business Daily reporter Tao Feng Wang Zhuli