Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
AT&T, Verizon and Sprint 4G
- Thread starter Wicked1
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Sometimes I despair at the state of technical reporting these days. For example, the article says:
Okay, that makes sense, but then the article turns a blind eye to similar theoretical claims:
Except that ATT won't have 21 Mbps off the bat either. It has only just now deployed 7.2Mbps HSPA, which averages 2.5 Mbps in real life, according to longterm results overseas.
Even if they set up the 21Mbps version, which is deployed by a few carriers already, it only averages around 7Mbps in real life.
Reporters should report the theoretical, real life max, and actual averages for all networks in their article.
Okay, that makes sense, but then the article turns a blind eye to similar theoretical claims:
Except that ATT won't have 21 Mbps off the bat either. It has only just now deployed 7.2Mbps HSPA, which averages 2.5 Mbps in real life, according to longterm results overseas.
Even if they set up the 21Mbps version, which is deployed by a few carriers already, it only averages around 7Mbps in real life.
Reporters should report the theoretical, real life max, and actual averages for all networks in their article.
Keep telling yourself that. T-Mobile's HSPA+ network (theoretical at 21Mb/s) is reaching real life speeds of 19Mb/s... much over your so-called averages. Also, 2.5Mb/s is not the real life number for 7.2Mb/s, try 3.3Mb/s, which is what many users here are reporting in cities were backhauls have been improved.
Sure there is some telling to all Verizon fanboys here
And some Verizon LTE users will see 50 Mbps. So what?
The point of the thread is that a reporter tried to compare theoretical maximums to real life speeds.
What really counts are actual average speeds under load.
The "so what" in the fact that HPSA+ is here, now, in some fashion, and people are using it and getting pretty close to promised speeds. LTE is still vaporware at this point, with only people in labs having used it so far.
Sounds to me like its a good idea to have switched to ATT and got the iPhone 3GS... Best hardware out there and will continue to have the best speeds... the 3G network on ATT will only continue to get better and by the time it's maxed it will be very fast, then it will be time for the newest neatest highest-tech iPhone with 4G blazability.
^^ The first 4G network has been running here in Stockholm for over two months already http://www.telia4g.se/
I live at the border of the coverage map http://www.telia4g.se/om-4g
If I take the trash out, seems like I'm already out of reach
I talked to a guy at a Telia store here and he said the users were getting like 5-10 Mbps, in real life. Of course there are not too many users yet (LTE uses channel dependent scheduling and rate adaptation), so I think I'll go and ask again after a while, so maybe they'll have more information on how it is actually performing.
The theoretical maximum of 50 Mbps will likely give higher peak data rates than a HSPA+ and you should also note that it's not all about the peak data rates... It's about reliability, delay, power consumption, not to mention that LTE is a big leap toward IMT(-Advanced)...