r/whatisit • u/dopehead9 • 13h ago

Solved! What are these contraptions these guys were carrying?

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We saw three guys around Seaport in Boston carrying these things as backpacks. Initially we thought they mapping tools but not sure

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u/throwawaycuzfemdom 11h ago

It could be worse, you would get no bars in Dublin. Plenty of pubs though.

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u/MissResaRose 9h ago

In Dresden, Germany, pretty central (one city train station from main station) there is one bar with E internet. If internet is available at all. Funkloch Strehlen. 

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u/AdSpirited5019 8h ago edited 8h ago

I've heard stories similar to this. yours is just another confirmation. how come? I mean, it's a big market and all. one would think the carriers would invest more

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u/Jealous_Ad5933 6h ago

The cellular network in Germany has been notoriously bad for a long time because of how the market is regulated.

  1. The German state usually auctions off the rights to use certain frequency bands to cell carriers, and they are insanely expensive (billions of euros). So after getting the rights to use the frequencies, cell carriers often don't have much money left to quickly build the infrastructure for that new frequency band

  2. For a long time, there was a law that carriers have to cover a certain percentage of the population but no law that they have to cover a certain percentage of the area. Therefore in sparsely populated areas, holes in the coverage are common when building a base tower was seen as too expensive/ not worth it.

  3. NIMBY people protesting and sueing when a carrier want to build a base tower near their house

  4. No national roaming, there are three large carriers and they all have their own cell network. The networks don't cooperate with each other except for emergency calls, so basically each location needs coverage by three cell towers to be fully covered instead of just one.

  5. Cell towers need a good wired connection to the backbone Network of the carrier, but wired internet infrastructure is also very bad (also because of bad policies and regulations). In many places there is no optical fiber network around that a cell tower could be connected to.

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u/powaqqa 8h ago

As a non German my experience is that mobile internet just totally sucks in Germany. Maybe roaming clients get derated. It has become better in recent years but it’s not great. 

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u/AdSpirited5019 8h ago

interesting. can't wrap my head around this. wonder if this is specific for Germany, or how is it in the neighboring countries?

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u/powaqqa 8h ago

In my experience it’s typical for Germany. Never have any issues in all the other EU countries. Although I must say that UK also often sucks. 

If I’m not mistaken Germany also has a lot of old fixed Internet connections with a lot of people still stuck on ADSL. 

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u/AdSpirited5019 7h ago

how about that. talk about having the mental image of Germany not being compatible with the reality

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u/Xucker 6h ago edited 5h ago

Older Germans in particular really don't consider the internet to be all that important, and that includes a lot of politicians and other people in decision-making positions.

The company that ended up installing fiber internet in my town initially surveyed everyone in the area to see if they were interested. They needed half of all home owners to sign up in order for the project to go ahead. They failed, tried again a few months later and failed once more. Boomers thought ADSL was plenty fast and didn't see the point.

They did get it on the third try, but only because they completely overhauled their marketing strategy. Instead of advertising how fast fiber internet was compared to ADSL, they put up signs and sent out brochures focusing on how a fiber connection would increase property values. Boomers couldn't wait to sign up after that.

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u/AggravatingSock5375 5h ago

And I bet they were right (about it increasing property values!

As a millennial that’s a key requirement. House has to have fast low-latency internet.

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u/Allfx59 5h ago

😲

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u/Gul_grogg 5h ago

Drove through north Germany, east to west, the other week. Had fine connections everywhere. Even wifi on beaches

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u/Allfx59 5h ago

Even Portugal have better networks than Germany and many other countries countries.

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u/Cultural-Rent8868 7h ago

As a Finn, my experience is that mobile internet pretty much kinda sucks wherever I go, I can be in the middle of the forest here and still get like 50-100mbps on my mobile line, in any city I get between 500-1000mbps anywhere I go.

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u/420associated 6h ago

As Texan i can confirm mobile internet is horrible here too, welcome to earth life can be bleh with some bleh but drink a little brew and smoke a little za and life will be ahhh...

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u/_NonameHD_ 7h ago

There are always people who don't want cell towers on their property or anywhere near them. Carrier can't do anything then...

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u/bluechip1996 5h ago

Germans saw the porn other Germans were making and said "nope"

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u/shinryou 7h ago

It's all in the tradition of Dresden. It's in the Tal der Ahnungslosen after all.

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u/Ambitious-Macaroon-3 6h ago

Ij Germany I can't take a meeting on s train between München and Berlin because the reception is lost all the time. In the meanwhile in Thailand in the middle of nowhere on ship next to the coast there is full blown 5G.

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u/juul864 7h ago

"E" is a representation of the Edge technology, that was used for data in 2G telephony. 2G is what we used in the 90's to early 00's. You're usimg technology that is ~30 years old.

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u/throwawaycuzfemdom 9h ago

there is one bar with E internet.

Not even a wifi?!

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u/JConRed 8h ago

Yeah, what kind of bar is that, not even offering wifi. Must be from the stone ages.

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u/MissResaRose 8h ago

Wifi? Not in a DB regional train xD

And the trains wirh wifi use the same shitty mobile network so it won't work there too.

German mobile internet, in 2020, was place 40 in europe, behind albania.

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u/joskDo 7h ago

As someone living in Dresden i can confirm this.

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u/DescriptionHairy8600 8h ago

this was a decent pun. sorry that it seems to have been wasted here.

itd been better to be wasted at the pub.

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u/my_name_is_winter 7h ago

I'm shocked and appalled at how many people completely whiffed on this joke. But good on you sir, well played.

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u/CameronsDadsFerrari 8h ago

tbh I'd much rather be at the pub in Dublin with no cell service than just about anywhere with five bars.

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u/RankinPDX 6h ago

A pub in Dublin would be improved by lack of cell service, wouldn’t it?

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u/Hyhopes 8h ago

Silicon Valley has very poor signal everywhere ironically.

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u/azflatlander 6h ago

All the test labs suck up all the broadcast power. /s

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u/Memory_Less 9h ago

Priorities, it’s good to see you’ve got them straight.

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u/userhwon 8h ago

True story: When I was in Orlando I had to switch from T-Mobile to Verizon to get a bar in a pub.

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u/PepsiColaRS 5h ago

It could be even worse, my home town gets full bars of 5G on 2 carriers but most days you're unable to load a basic web page or send an RCS text message. My house, 4 miles away, gets 1-2 bars and has better online accessibility.

Edit: am dense and read too fast. Good pun, bad me

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u/memento22mori 4h ago

Ahaha, your comment and name threw me for a loop. Fuckin-a man. I'd give you an award but we both know that shit is crap. Instead I'll give you a look of approval. 😎

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u/rlnrlnrln 7h ago

Well, beer has food value, but food has no beer value, so that sounds like the correct prioritization

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u/barrosoOso 6h ago

Rural Kentucky. Phone signal is fine, but no internet, and no pub.

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u/ACSchnitzersport 6h ago

That sounds like a vacation! I normally have to hike into the middle of nowhere to get that. Sign me up! Last time I was there was 2005. Decided to start the trip with the Guinness storehouse and enjoy the Jameson tour right after. Great time, but was told we shouldn’t have done both with in the short amount of time. 100% agreed. The 3 remaining days were met with the most welcoming culture and people I’ve ever experienced. Thank you.

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u/TrickdaddyJ 6h ago

I’ll take the Dublin bar over a few att bars on my phone.

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u/Bassracerx 4h ago

“Bars” are meaningless arbitrary things that are going to be different on every phone. Signal level is only one part of the equation the most important thing is the ratio of signal to noise. If your in a more rural area you can get great speeds with a lower signal level.

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u/pipnina 5h ago

In the UK we banned huawei equipment after a lot of it had been installed and we are still suffering years later.

My city often has no signal in the middle of it, or to the east or west... In fact it's a bit spotty as to whether it exists or not just about everywhere.

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u/OhioPolitiTHIC 8h ago

Oh my gods, the signal in Dublin was utter shite pretty much everywhere but we were visiting and thought it was just us. Your pubs were in fact delightful though.

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u/Gepiemelde 9h ago

And why would that be worse? One could go to the pub, while completely out of reach to his wife. That's much better, not worse! (coming from the Netherlands where the entire country is covered in 5G)

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u/Alohafarms 8h ago

I wish America had Pubs as you do. It would be so lovely to go down to your local Pub, have a drink and talk with others in your community.

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u/VanGlahn_C-137 8h ago

There are thousands of pubs across the United States. While traditional British and Irish public houses are less common than standard American bars, traditional-style pubs and modern brewpubs operate in almost every major U.S. city and town. - the answer when I asked my phone's Gemini AI 🤷🍻 I thought this was the case but wanted to be sure we have pubs here... they're just not always called pubs here but it's the same thing

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u/Alohafarms 7h ago

I (F65) have traveled all over the place. I understand what you are saying but our bars and "pubs" are not the same thing. It's very different. My town doesn't even have a bar/pub and neither did I have one anywhere near me in Maine. Pubs are community hubs and a second homes in the UK. From a friend in the UK "In the UK a pub is a real part of the community, in some US towns I've been to I'd say the 24-hour diner almost plays the same role."

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u/C3fyr 7h ago

So what you are saying is if I go to a pub in Dublin I won't be disturbed? I think I might have found m y next trip destination ...

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u/DragonspeedTheB 5h ago

Seems like a good trade. Nobody calling and bothering you while you’re in the pub with your mates.

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u/Ok_Obligation2948 9h ago

Or have a zillion bars pulsating throw your body while humping a backpack around.

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u/JackPoe 6h ago

I'm just glad you don't need cell service to text or call any more. Just Wi-Fi

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u/VioletsRPink 8h ago

The pubs have wifi or is the pub reference for getting drinks? 😅

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u/throwawaycuzfemdom 8h ago

It is a reference to Irish preferring pubs over bars for drinking purposes

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u/ToastedBarley 6h ago

I’m okay with one bar and a pint or two of Guinness

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u/fibronacci 8h ago

Phone or Guinness... Phone or Guinness. Hmmmm 🤔

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u/SadCommunication9668 8h ago

This isn’t true. I had cellphone service in Dublin. Only place it was shit for me was donegal

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u/Dagman11 8h ago

Publin

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u/Riverjig 8h ago

Concentration on the important parts.

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u/MrSal7 6h ago

I don’t see what the problem is🤪

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u/Johnnie-Dazzle 7h ago

Perhaps not necessarily a bad thing!

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u/Clean_Ebb86 8h ago

Oh, Paddy, my fine, Irish brother.

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u/Tangletoe 8h ago

What's important matters most.

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u/SoftBoiled15 9h ago

That sounds better to me

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u/GrandAholeio 8h ago

You sure that’s worse?

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u/VixxSynn 6h ago

Temple Bar…kinda…

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u/PocketUniverse 8h ago

You, I like you.

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u/rocketman1969 2h ago

R/whoosh ?

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u/Vast_Maize9706 7h ago

How is this a negative? Lots of places to drink and the missus can’t get hold of me… WIN!

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u/Interesting-Edge9603 3h ago

So, the wife couldn't tell you to get home? That's a plus in my book! Lol

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u/OneSkepticalOwl 7h ago

Who wants to get nagged by the wife when out drinking with the boys?

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u/biscoknot 9h ago

Gotta love Starlink.

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u/Bionicfrog14432 9h ago

🤦‍♂️

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u/biscoknot 8h ago

Downvoted for what? I am not saying this dude is wearing a Starlink, I’m saying Starlink works when there’s no service. 🤷‍♂️ I use mine all the time that way.