Do I need a 5G Sim card?

[thoengthaied]

I have a 5G compatible smartphone. Is it necessary to change my sim card which I've had for 10 years to a 5G compatible Sim?

[TommyUK1960]

Yes. If you want the benefits of 5G. Should be no problem keeping your number.

[Swiss1960]

You don't have to, but if you want to profit from 5G, go to your provider's boot and tell them to put your number on a 5G SIM. Otherwise, your phone will happily continue on 3/4G, depending on coverage.

[mtls2005]

I wouldn't think so.

 

But SIM exhaustion was a thing, so maybe a new one, or even an eSIM, might be in order.

 

I'd chat up the provider via their app. and ask.

 

Are you experiencing problems? Your phone is 5G-capable with your current provider, right? You enrolled in a 5G plan?

 

 

 

 

[Henryford]

I don't quite understand the benefits of 5G. OK it's fast downloading but i don't want to watch a movie on my phone when i am out. I would do that at home on my 1Gbps internet. For making phone calls, web browsing etc why would you want 5G?

[mtls2005]

51 minutes ago, Henryford said:

I don't quite understand the benefits of 5G.

Yea, you're not the only rocket scientist out there.

 

A solution in search of a problem or application.

 

At some point self-flying cars may need higher bandwidth?

 

That said, no one is forcing you to use 5G, right?

 

 

[tonray]

22 hours ago, Henryford said:

I don't quite understand the benefits of 5G. OK it's fast downloading but i don't want to watch a movie on my phone when i am out. I would do that at home on my 1Gbps internet. For making phone calls, web browsing etc why would you want 5G?

Newflash...you can actually watch a movie @ 4Mbps @ 1080p. The whole speed thing is absurd for the casual user. Medical imaging, commercial CAD/CAM stuff..yeah...but way overkill for anybody else.

[sikishrory]

I got a 5g phone few months ago and the 5g didn't work using my regular sim. Actually the issue was the packages would fail thto purchase.

Ais said on the phone i need to change it. I walked into shop as they told me too and shop said don't need to change and were kind of rude. Then they realised the issue. They were perplexed and had to call bkk who changed something in the system. They did change the SIM but i think actually i didn't need to. You can keep the same number 

[dlclark97]

I guess my question would be, How widely available (if at all) is actual 5G service in Thailand?  It also seems to me that even if available for phone service the average user would be unable to notice any change in speed or quality.  To my way of thinking 5G phones are sold here only because they are the phones being made for parts of they world that actually have the service already in place.

[thoengthaied]

23 hours ago, Swiss1960 said:

You don't have to, but if you want to profit from 5G, go to your provider's boot and tell them to put your number on a 5G SIM. Otherwise, your phone will happily continue on 3/4G, depending on coverage.

What is my provider's boot, please?

[thoengthaied]

23 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

I wouldn't think so.

 

But SIM exhaustion was a thing, so maybe a new one, or even an eSIM, might be in order.

 

I'd chat up the provider via their app. and ask.

 

Are you experiencing problems? Your phone is 5G-capable with your current provider, right? You enrolled in a 5G plan?

 

 

 

 

Not experiencing any problems at all. I haven't asked my provider if my sim is 5G compatible, and I presume I'm not enrolled in a 5G plan. Since I bought my current phone about 2 years ago I haven't changed anything. All is working fine. I am just curious after having read somewhere about 5G compatible sim cards. I have 2 sim cards in my phone. One for normal use and the other for data.

[Andrew Dwyer]

6 minutes ago, thoengthaied said:

What is my provider's boot, please?

Booth/Shop

( I assume ).

[AlQaholic]

When I switched to a 5G phone (bought at True, with discount), They did not change the SIM card, it is the same one as I used on my 4G phone. There is an indicator on the phone showing if 5G or 4G is used, most of the time it shows 5G, only in some remote areas it switches to 4G. I have a second SIM card from my work which is also from True. If I switch Mobile data to use that SIM card (the one from my work) it indicates 5G is used as well. So it seems to me that if you have a 5G phone, that is all that is needed, no need for a dedicated 5G subscription, unless the work True contract has changed to 5G as well, which I wouldn't be aware of.

For the performance of 5G, it is vastly superior to 4G, especially when downloading/uploading/streaming large amounts of data. But for True, I have experienced disruptions where the phone indicates 5G is active, but there is no data transfer for a while and then it works again after a little while, I assume that is some technical difficulties that is going to go away eventually.

5G is supposed to be vastly superior to 4G when it is fully implemented, it should be more like wifi, with large number of mini and micro stations everywhere instead of the huge towers.

[edwardflory]

My SIM is 8 years old, my mobile 1 year running Android 10.

According to 3 different apk SPEED results ( I don't trust just 1 apk ), as well as indicator on mobile, I am running at 5G speed.

 

I live about 10km outside Korat and mobile shows 5G rght now, sometimes drops to 4G depending where my location is and nearest cell tower.  I use AIS.

[AlQaholic]

On 1/24/2022 at 9:24 AM, Henryford said:

I don't quite understand the benefits of 5G. OK it's fast downloading but i don't want to watch a movie on my phone when i am out. I would do that at home on my 1Gbps internet. For making phone calls, web browsing etc why would you want 5G?

Hotspot.

[Almudena]

I can easily watch HD movies on 4mbps.  Now I have Dtac 20mbps unlimited and it works overkill for watching YouTube.  I actually find that the sim is more reliable than the fixed line connection as it's not affected by blackouts etc....  

[khunjeff]

36 minutes ago, AlQaholic said:

But for True, I have experienced disruptions where the phone indicates 5G is active, but there is no data transfer for a while and then it works again after a little while, I assume that is some technical difficulties that is going to go away eventually.

That happens to me even with True 4G, but fortunately not often and not for very long each time.

[DefaultName]

Interesting.  I normally get 40-50Mbps down, do I need 5G?

[JackGats]

Someone told me right now 5G is just hype, a lot of things are being mislabelled "5G" long before 5G is anywhere near available 10% of the time.

[IAMHERE]

On 1/24/2022 at 9:24 AM, Henryford said:

I don't quite understand the benefits of 5G. OK it's fast downloading but i don't want to watch a movie on my phone when i am out. I would do that at home on my 1Gbps internet. For making phone calls, web browsing etc why would you want 5G?

My understanding is 5G  is for gamers, they need the speed. Most folks wouldn't touch the capabilities of 5G in their daily use. The OP getting a 5G sim isn't necessary but can be done by Swiss1960 informative post.

[richard_smith237]

4 hours ago, dlclark97 said:

I guess my question would be, How widely available (if at all) is actual 5G service in Thailand?  It also seems to me that even if available for phone service the average user would be unable to notice any change in speed or quality.  To my way of thinking 5G phones are sold here only because they are the phones being made for parts of they world that actually have the service already in place.

I have a 5G phone and 5G service - but really, I don’t notice much difference at all. 

 

I get 5G is most area’s of centra Bangkok, I imagine its growing and any 5G coverage map may be out of date already. 

 

I wouldn’t actively pay more for a 5G connection, I haven’t noticed any increase in speed, I haven’t ran any tests either. 

 

What I have noticed is the TrueWiFi network which my phone logs into automatically when out and about - I have to ensure I’ve switched off ‘Auto-log-in’ which is a bit of a pain when I want to automatically log in to other networks when at a friends house etc.

 

 

 

 

[suzannegoh]

On 1/25/2022 at 8:32 AM, dlclark97 said:

I guess my question would be, How widely available (if at all) is actual 5G service in Thailand?  It also seems to me that even if available for phone service the average user would be unable to notice any change in speed or quality.  To my way of thinking 5G phones are sold here only because they are the phones being made for parts of they world that actually have the service already in place.

5G on the N41 (2500MHz) band is widely available in Bangkok and Chiang Mai and probably other population centers.  Whether it's worthwhile is another matter.  It is faster than LTE but as many other people are commenting in this thread, most people don't need anything faster than LTE on their phone.