What Does 5G Actually Do? A Frequency-Level Explainer
No conspiracy. Just frequencies.
The public conversation about 5G is almost entirely useless — split between corporate marketing that oversells the benefits and conspiracy content that misrepresents the technology. Neither side talks about frequencies. Frequencies are the only thing that matters. Here’s what 5G actually is, band by band.
5G Is Not One Thing
The term “5G” describes the fifth generation of cellular network technology. That’s a standards designation, not a physics description. In practice, 5G encompasses three fundamentally different types of wireless service operating at three different frequency ranges with three different sets of physical characteristics.
Calling all three “5G” is like calling a bicycle, a sedan, and a fighter jet “vehicles.” Technically accurate. Practically meaningless. The differences between low-band, mid-band, and millimeter-wave 5G are greater than the differences between 4G and low-band 5G.
The confusion is useful to carriers (who market the fastest version while deploying the slowest) and to conspiracy theorists (who conflate the most exotic version with the most mundane). Neither party benefits from you understanding the frequencies. We do, because understanding is what we sell — and then hats.
The Three Bands
Low-Band 5G (600–900 MHz)
What it is: The same frequency range that 4G LTE has used for a decade, now running the 5G NR (New Radio) protocol. Frequencies include Band n71 (600 MHz, T-Mobile), Band n5 (850 MHz), and Band n28 (700 MHz).
What it does: Provides broad coverage with excellent building penetration. This is the “coverage layer” — the signal that reaches you in basements, rural areas, and through concrete walls. Speed improvements over 4G are modest: typically 50–200 Mbps.
What’s different from 4G: Surprisingly little in terms of frequencies and physics. Low-band 5G uses the same spectrum as 4G LTE, just with a more efficient air interface. The electromagnetic exposure characteristics are functionally identical to the 4G signals that have been passing through you for years.
Building penetration: Excellent. These wavelengths (33–50 cm) pass through walls, glass, and building materials with minimal attenuation. Dispatch #002 listed these in the frequency map.
Mid-Band 5G (2.5–4.2 GHz)
What it is: The core of the 5G experience for most users. Includes Band n41 (2.5 GHz, T-Mobile’s primary 5G layer), and the C-band spectrum Bands n77/n78 (3.45–3.7 GHz, AT&T and Verizon).
What it does: Balances speed and coverage. Typical speeds of 200–700 Mbps with reasonable building penetration. This is the band that delivers noticeably faster service than 4G while still working indoors.
What’s different from 4G: This is where 5G starts to diverge. The 2.5 GHz band was previously used for limited services (WiMAX, educational broadband). The 3.45–3.7 GHz C-band was satellite spectrum, auctioned to carriers and redeployed for terrestrial cellular. These are genuinely new frequency deployments — new antennas, new infrastructure, new electromagnetic energy in the environment that wasn’t there before.
The MIT connection: The 2.5 GHz band sits directly in the range where the MIT study found aluminum foil amplification at 2.6 GHz. In 2005, this band was quiet. It now carries a substantial portion of American 5G traffic. The paradoxical amplification finding becomes more relevant, not less, as this band gets denser.
Millimeter-Wave 5G (24–47 GHz)
What it is: The headline technology. Bands n257 (28 GHz), n258 (26 GHz), n260 (39 GHz), and n261 (28 GHz). Frequencies that were previously used almost exclusively for point-to-point microwave links and military applications.
What it does: Delivers extreme speeds — 1–4 Gbps in ideal conditions. This is the “5G” in the commercials. It’s also the 5G that almost nobody actually uses, because the physics make it impractical for broad deployment.
The physics problem: Millimeter waves have very short wavelengths (6–12 mm). They are absorbed by foliage, attenuated by rain, blocked by glass, and stopped by walls. They require direct line of sight between antenna and device. Deployment is limited to dense urban areas, stadiums, airports, and transit hubs where the carriers can justify the cost of installing antennas every few hundred meters.
What’s different from everything before: This is genuinely new. These frequencies were not part of the consumer electromagnetic environment before 5G. Millimeter waves interact with biological tissue differently than lower frequencies — they are absorbed primarily in the skin rather than penetrating deeper into tissue. The FCC’s 1996 safety guidelines were not designed with millimeter-wave consumer exposure in mind. The MIT study tested up to 3 GHz — these frequencies are 8–15× higher than the study’s ceiling.
What Actually Changed from 4G to 5G
Here’s the honest assessment, stripped of both marketing and conspiracy:
The Rational Position
The rational position on 5G is not “it’s safe” or “it’s dangerous.” The rational position is: some of it is old technology rebranded, some of it is genuinely new, the new parts haven’t been studied for long-term effects because they can’t have been, and the regulatory framework governing all of it was designed for a different era.
Conspiracy theories about 5G have made it socially costly to ask legitimate questions about RF exposure. The conspiracy content is so absurd that it provides cover for the legitimate gaps in research and regulation. Asking “have millimeter-wave frequencies been studied for long-term consumer exposure?” now sounds like asking about microchips and mind control, even though it’s a straightforward scientific question with a straightforward answer: no, they haven’t, because the deployment is too recent.
TINFOIL exists in the space between the conspiracy and the complacency. We don’t think 5G is a weapon. We don’t think it’s perfectly safe. We think the electromagnetic environment has changed dramatically, the research hasn’t kept pace, the regulations are outdated, and awareness is the minimum rational response.
Frequency Awareness
Understanding the electromagnetic environment is the first layer of cognitive defense. TINFOIL products are designed for every frequency band on this page — including the ones that didn’t exist when the safety standards were written.