3G, 4G: How to make money off a moving target

[diogen]

Good writeup
Ksplice » Essay: 3G and me - System administration and software blog

To summarize:
Just like 3G "started" in 2002 and was called EDGE, some of what is called 4G today in fact isn't.
And in the end it's all red herring anyway: protocol and bandwidth are very loosely related...

Diogen.

 

[Lkr]

As long as we move towards better coverage and faster speeds, I could care less about labels

 

[TheForce]

moral of the story is what I live by now-- Never buy future technology with today's dollars. Never pay more for the promise that what you buy is future proof, or that the manufacturer will be making an adapter for that. Been burned too often for not heeding that advice.

 

[navychop]

Yep, good article. Just shows that all you need for 4G (or 5G) is a Marketing Department.

Per the ITU, as stated in the article, Sprint 4G is just a variant of 3G. And they could not get away with such a "4G" claim in Europe or much of the world.

 

[TheForce]

I thought Sprint's 4G was Clearwire. While Verizon and AT&T will be LTE based. Clearwire here has lots of dead zones. I don't see it as reliable for roaming. For fixed location and you are not in a dead zone it works as good as DSL.

 

[diogen]

A sober view on more of the same, being it 3G or 4G...
Call it "3G" or "4G," America's wireless networks are still slow

Despite being at best in the middle of the pack

For example, TeliaSonera rolled out LTE services in major Nordic and Baltic countries including Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway and Sweden last year with speeds that blow US 4G offerings out of the water: “In normal circumstances, the average download speed is 20-80 Mbit/s.” German mobile provider Vodafone is offering LTE service with 7Mbps speeds on the low end while also offering downloads up to 50Mbps on more expensive plans.

the data plan pricing goes only up...

Services branded 4G in the US meet the unambitious National Broadband Plan universalization goals, but they are not next-generation services when compared to speeds in other countries. Our mobile communications will suffer from a generation gap—whether the technology is called "4G" or not.

Diogen.

 

[StevenD]

I thought Sprint's 4G was Clearwire. While Verizon and AT&T will be LTE based. Clearwire here has lots of dead zones. I don't see it as reliable for roaming. For fixed location and you are not in a dead zone it works as good as DSL.

Yep. I have a WiMax card in my netbook and Clear works great if you can get 4 bars. Less than that and its no faster than tethering my Tilt2.

 

[navychop]

Wow. Those speeds really put us to shame.

 

[Jimbo]

Hi guys,
I'm sitting in the Houston airport, my first experience with 4G !

Just got done testing speeds here, they are running almost 4mg downand about 1 up, at least where I am.

 

[Steve Mehs]

Those speeds are on the low side. I typically get 9Mb+ down, but the upload is normal at 1Mb.

 

[Jimbo]

Those speeds are on the low side. I typically get 9Mb+ down, but the upload is normal at 1Mb.

Really ? Wow !

For a cell phone, I think I'd be thriled with 3-4 mg, but that's just me.

 

[Steve Mehs]

I'm generally dissatisfied with all 4G speedtests under 9Mb. I haven't done any in a while, if I think about it I'll do a few when I'm in Rochester tomorrow. Ever since the Fall, I've been averaging 10Mb+. I've posted this a few times, but my record is just a few ticks shy of 12Mb. I have hit and went over 12Mb before, but I was never able to sustain it for the entire duration of the test.

 

[Jimbo]

I will post again next week on the way back home, ill have another hour or so to kill again in the Ouston airport and I can check consistancy then.

Would 4g be different speeds at different areas of town ?
I wouldn't think so...

 

[dangue]

I will post again next week on the way back home, ill have another hour or so to kill again in the Ouston airport and I can check consistancy then.

Would 4g be different speeds at different areas of town ?
I wouldn't think so...

I would imagine that it would be like 3G coverage and depend on your geographic relationship to the cell towers as well as how many other users are sharing the connection you're on. If you're on the fringe of a coverage area and a lot of people are using 4G, I'd expect it to be slower than near a cell tower with few users using the connection.

 

[Steve Mehs]

Yes, data speeds can be drastically different in different parts of town. That speedtest above was taken in the parking lot of one of my customers in the village of East Rochester. I constantly get faster speeds there than anywhere else. The last few times I took a test in the city it was in the 6-7Mb range. North and eastern areas get faster speeds. Also dependent on signal strength. You will get faster speeds with full 3 bar 4G then with 1 bar.

 

[Jimbo]

Ok, that makes sense what you guys mentioned,but...
Wouldn't you think that Airports would be serviced with one very close seeing the amount of traffic that goes thru them ? (Houston in this case, George W) .

 

[diogen]

AT&T's 4G can hardly be called 3G nowadays.
With iPhone getting special treatment...?
Is AT&T Capping Upload Speeds? | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

These results suggest that AT&T is, in fact, capping upload speeds for at least several different non-iPhone 4 devices.
Now, we haven't worked out the variables here. This could be a problem specifically with the four devices we've tested...

Diogen.

 

[Jimbo]

A sober view on more of the same, being it 3G or 4G...
Call it "3G" or "4G," America's wireless networks are still slow

Despite being at best in the middle of the pack
the data plan pricing goes only up...


Diogen.

For example, TeliaSonera rolled out LTE services in major Nordic and Baltic countries including Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway and Sweden last year with speeds that blow US 4G offerings out of the water: “In normal circumstances, the average download speed is 20-80 Mbit/s.” German mobile provider Vodafone is offering LTE service with 7Mbps speeds on the low end while also offering downloads up to 50Mbps on more expensive plans.

What is the PRICE for this High speed Cell phone internet ?

 

[diogen]

I don't have the breakdown - quite a few variables here, starting with country - but it is cheaper than anything remotely usable here in Canada.

Diogen.

 

[navychop]

AT&T's 4G can hardly be called 3G nowadays......

I wasn't aware AT&T was claiming any 4G in operation. Have they started making such claims? They don't even start LTE until mid year. Nobody in the US has 4G as defined by the ITU.