 With higher speeds and lower latency than 4G LTE, 5G promises to be better for basically every mobile application. Whether it's watching HD video on the go, getting critical real-time data to autonomous vehicles, or just gaming while you're out and about without annoying lag. But there's a catch. So T-Mobile reached out to sponsor a video where we're going to talk about some of the obstacles getting in the way of certain 5G deployments. Because when you hear about 5G being as fast or maybe even faster than your home internet connection, that's actually, well, true. 5G has been clocked at speeds in excess of 1 gigabit per second in the real world. But in order to hit those speeds, 5G relies on a segment of the wireless spectrum called millimeter wave. It can also be blocked by pretty much anything. Think of the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands on your home Wi-Fi access point. They're both using the same generation of antenna and chipset technology, but depending on which one you select, they can have vastly different performance characteristics. So if you're in the same room as your hotspot, your 5 GHz is going to be way faster. But by the time you go a couple rooms over on the other side of a concrete wall where your 2.4 GHz is still limping along, you're probably lucky to have any 5 GHz signal at all. So back to cellular then, the principle is basically the same. 5G is just a term that describes the latest generation of cellular transmission and receiving equipment. So T-Mobile equipped us with a device from one of their competitors and challenged us to see just how easy it is to drop a millimeter wave 5G connection. All right, so we found a wild 5G hotspot in Bryant Park. We're going to go ahead and do a quick speed test here. We've got line of sight to it on the top of that building, and we are getting some pretty rocking download speeds here, guys. Check this out. 800 megabit per second. This is working basically exactly as we'd expect millimeter wave 5G to work. It's super, super fast, but that's also in very close proximity to the tower and with no obstruction. Let's try another test with just myself, myself in between. Not bad. Now that's faster than 4G, but we did knock off over 150 megabit per second. The thing, though, is that in this case, I was even able to keep my 5G connection. The problem is that even the smallest obstacles, if they're larger than this or if you don't have a convenient surface for the signal to bounce off of, can utterly block your millimeter wave 5G and drop you right back down to 4G LTE. So let's go try out a bunch of different scenarios where ultimately 5G can be easily blocked by the most innocuous things. Yesterday, we had a 5G signal here when Colton was checking, and now there's none. Need a 5G signal. Dying. Oh my God, where is it? Still nothing. This is a terrible, terrible early adopter experience. Come on, 5G. Oh, I got it. I got it. Boom. There it is. See that? OK, you ready? Now follow me back over. Da da da da da da. And it's gone. Just myself. Maybe if I move out from the sidewalk a bit. Oh my God, I had a 5G signal. Dennis, you ruined everything. You gotta be kidding me. How to drop your millimeter wave only 5G connection. Excuse me, sir. Yeah, thanks. Gotta get my 5G here. How to block your millimeter wave only 5G connection. Just move under an umbrella. It's gone. Just like that. It's just gone. No more 5G. You want your 5G back, you gotta get out from under the umbrella. Sorry, guys. Give it a hot minute. Maybe turn your data back on and off. There you go. All right. It's great. It's good experience. And it's gone. And it's gone. 4G. And there it goes. It's gone. How easy is it to drop a millimeter wave only 5G connection? Well, you don't even have to make it all the way into the subway. Let's see how many steps this takes. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. And we're done. We're done, bud. All right. All right. So you guys get the point. Now it's time to answer the question that surely everyone has on their mind right now. What exactly is T-Mobile doing? Sponsoring videos about how millimeter wave 5G has terrible, terrible reception issues. Isn't T-Mobile also planning to deploy millimeter wave 5G? Because yes. Yes, in fact, they are. I mean, when I first talked to them about this, I was like, I'm sorry, what? Well, as it turns out, they're planning a very different 5G strategy compared to some of their competitors. The goal is to use a combination of the low and high band frequencies that they already own along with the mid band frequencies that they're hoping to acquire through the sprint merger in early 2020 in order to hit that perfect trifecta of both high speeds and great coverage. And they're doing it now. T-Mobile's 5G network is rolling out in over 5000 US cities. And thanks to their low band towers, it'll even work indoors. To learn more about what T-Mobile is doing in the 5G space, guys, check out the link in the video description. Thanks to T-Mobile for sponsoring this video and thanks you guys for watching it.