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Does 5G require a completely unobstructed line of sight?

Depends what's in the way I guess. I'm just beyond the edge of supposed outside 5G reception with the 5G tower about 2 miles away.
Most people seem to think Three's coverage map is quite conservative, and goes a bit beyond. While this may be the case for most scenarios (I assume there's a max distance cut-off even with direct LOS), in my case there's an actual mass of land blocking the signal, not to mention all the trees - no gaps there. I think I'm gonna struggle to connect to B1 on the tower, especially as the LTE antennas on the tower are lower than the 5G ones I ran the LOS calculations for.

But I'll be sure to give band locking a go next time I go up there, I just can't be bothered switching SIMs and going through the testing procedure again today.

Either way, Three acquired planning permission to install some 5G equipment to a tall building last month. Not entirely sure whether I'd have LOS, but the tools seem to indicate there should be from the loft. But again, that's another case of being right on the edge of being able to get a signal; there's a small region where there's a 10cm distance between the LOS and the ground.
 
Have you tried locking to the NSA 4G band that your 5G tower uses?
Just tried locking 4G to B1 (used by all the nearby 5G-enabled sites) and I'm unable to get any signal at all. Even more disappointingly, the soon-to-be-installed 5G site on the building I mentioned currently supplies B1 LTE — I'd imagine if I can't even pick up a 4G signal from that site, then I have no chance with 5G.

Oh well, Vodafone's 160Mb/s 4G is honestly more than enough for me so it doesn't matter too much, but would've been nice to have.
 
Just tried locking 4G to B1 (used by all the nearby 5G-enabled sites) and I'm unable to get any signal at all. Even more disappointingly, the soon-to-be-installed 5G site on the building I mentioned currently supplies B1 LTE — I'd imagine if I can't even pick up a 4G signal from that site, then I have no chance with 5G.

Oh well, Vodafone's 160Mb/s 4G is honestly more than enough for me so it doesn't matter too much, but would've been nice to have.
Just tried locking 4G to B1 (used by all the nearby 5G-enabled sites) and I'm unable to get any signal at all. Even more disappointingly, the soon-to-be-installed 5G site on the building I mentioned currently supplies B1 LTE — I'd imagine if I can't even pick up a 4G signal from that site, then I have no chance with 5G.

Oh well, Vodafone's 160Mb/s 4G is honestly more than enough for me so it doesn't matter too much, but would've been nice to have.
No way to know if the 5G will be backhaul limited to around 200meg as is the case with my nearest 5G cell on Three, Your better off with Vodafone.
 
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Be interesting to know how far even with LoS a Poynthing 5G antenna could pickup a good (3.5Ghz) signal from a mast.
 
No 5G does not require uninterrupted line of of sight, it's mostly reflected.
I wonder, do most reflections come from buildings and so it works in urban environments better, or from landscape features, ie hills/ valleys etc?
 
I wonder, do most reflections come from buildings and so it works in urban environments better, or from landscape features, ie hills/ valleys etc?
Having travelled a bit through Europe recently, I must admit 5G worked really well in dense cities with somewhat high buildings (Barcelona, Marseille etc) with seemingly no masts in sight.
Don't think it'd work as well in a hilly, rural area alas.

Another interesting thing I have noticed is that reflected connections tended to have higher downloads speeds, but lower uploads than LOS ones. Likely an idiosyncrasy of beam forming.
 
I get 750Mb down, 70Mb up when aiming at a Three mast around 2.5 miles away. Pretty good LoS though (this is at work). At home I get 5G but struggle to get 100Mb with no LoS.
 
Most people seem to think Three's coverage map is quite conservative, and goes a bit beyond. While this may be the case for most scenarios (I assume there's a max distance cut-off even with direct LOS), in my case there's an actual mass of land blocking the signal, not to mention all the trees - no gaps there. I think I'm gonna struggle to connect to B1 on the tower, especially as the LTE antennas on the tower are lower than the 5G ones I ran the LOS calculations for.
I think the Three map in my area is over-optimistic. Although my exact location is in a pocket that the map says I won't get a signal, outside areas nearby that the map suggests should be ok don't get a 5g phone signal either. There are just two high points when walking nearby that I've found an intermittent 5g signal can sometimes be had.
Rain doesn't seem to matter though. It's bucketing down at the moment and 5G is still rock solid from my router in its little spot in the front bedroom. Mobile reception seems to be an art rather than science.
 

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