Is LTE just a money making gimmick for cell phone carriers?

[Commodus]

The caps are ridiculous, but I don't think bandwidth is the only reason why LTE is worth keeping.

It's the latency. Even dual-carrier HSPA+ 3G still has more overall lag, so it can sometimes feel slower even when your speed tests suggest it should be similar. It's important for any internet activity where time delays and responsiveness are crucial (live video, multiplayer games and the like). Carriers do need to increase the caps, but I'd argue that it's almost more important to improve capacity and make sure that the technology lives up to its full potential.

 

[alkemyst]

Even on home internet, if you go crazy with downloads most providers will end up throttling you ESP if you go crazy with UPLOADS!

 

[randomrogue]

When you guys are complaining about caps what cap are you talking about? 3GB? 5GB?

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Its not just raw download speed. I'm sure 95% of you would be content with a consistent 5mbps connection. The problem with 3G HSPA is that not only is it congested, but there's significant time in ramp up of the modem from sleep. It sometimes takes a second or so until you start receiving data. Every second of wakelock is bad for the phone. LTE also has a latency advantage.

At the end of the day its spectrum spectrum spectrum. AT&T's Band 17 is getting clogged up no doubt. What's funny is that at music festivals, you can downgrade to HSPA and likely have more spectrum due to 850/1900. HSPA's capacity is less though so its always a delicate balancing game. Most of the time though downgrading to 3G gives you some life in the connection if LTE is getting to jammed up. The same principle works with Verizon too. I found that Verizon LTE at Coachella was unusable at a certain point, but the 3G was still usable.

With that said anything other than browsing reddit or emails on Verizon's 3G is unusable. You NEED LTE on their network to do anything.

 

[cmdrdredd]

When I drop from LTE to normal 4G on t-mobile when I'm out of the LTE zone I'm immediately reminded of how wonderfully fast and convenient it is. I'm impatient on the internet though, I have 105/20 at the house.

I too pay for t-mobile unlimited

 

[Bateluer]

The tiered data plans are a joke, but LTE speeds are no gimmick.

 

[jacktesterson]

When you guys are complaining about caps what cap are you talking about? 3GB? 5GB?

I'm in Canada. I have 1GB. But thankfully, Wifi is everywhere. My city is pretty much on WiFi.

As far as Data, I'm not a heavy user. I realize the advantage to LTE is basically getting rid of the delay for the modem to switch on. But its like a split second or 2 at the most. For browsing HSPA+ is fine. LTE is nice and will be on most smartphones anyways for anyone who discusses this topic.

 

[KentState]

LTE is pretty awesome from my experience, though I never had to deal with a data cap. At work, I get around 70/30 so it's blazing.

 

[shortylickens]

LTE is awesome, but only if you have unlimited data.

Most of us do, its just throttled after 5 gigs.

 

[thedosbox]

Try using HSPA+ in central London (UK) and speeds are miserable as the network is stuffed to capacity. It's not quite as bad in downtown Toronto, but it made a noticeable difference for VoIP and desktop sharing when I switched from a HSPA+ phone to a LTE hotspot.

 

[Eug]

Try using HSPA+ in central London (UK) and speeds are miserable as the network is stuffed to capacity. It's not quite as bad in downtown Toronto, but it made a noticeable difference for VoIP and desktop sharing when I switched from a HSPA+ phone to a LTE hotspot.

London 3G must truly suck, because I think 3G in downtown Toronto already sucks. And yeah, it's not max download speed, but reliability and latency.

It's night and day with LTE. LTE is actually usually pleasant. It's easiest to notice the difference if you tether. If I tether my laptop on 3G, it's often quite irritating to use, like dialup at times, interspersed with slow broadband. With LTE, it's usually smooth sailing if I have good signal.

Part of the reason is the carriers not putting enough investment into the 3G side, but I wouldn't blame them, since it doesn't make a lot of sense to spend a lot of money on old tech. Put the bandwidth into LTE and beyond. Those on 3G can suffer, I don't care.

EDIT:

BTW, as mentioned before, my cap is 2 GB per month. I've only ever used more than 2 GB once, and that month I used just under 3 GB total. The reason though is because I spent a week out of town, and the last day of the trip used hundreds of MB downloading games for my toddler, from iTunes and Google Play.

Normally I use around 1 GB (0.5 GB to 1.5 GB), since at home I'm on WiFi, and at work I just use my desktop.

I don't watch Netflix over LTE, nor do I stream music. It's mainly just surfing and email (including JPGs and short videos) and some YouTube. For email, 3G is usually OK (unless there are big multimedia files), but for surfing and definitely for YouTube, LTE often makes a big difference.

 

[s44]

Most of us do, its just throttled after 5 gigs.

Verizon unlimited master race

 

[Red Storm]

Verizon unlimited master race

I sometimes miss my Verizon unlimited data (and it was truly unlimited unlike AT&T's "unlimited" data), mostly because it was nice to know that if I ever wanted to use a ridiculous amount of data, I could. But I've been getting by just fine on my 1GB T-Mobile line.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I wanted to add that I have never used Netflix etc over my mobile connection but it is nice to know that I can and get a smooth video stream on LTE with no overage worries.

 

[jhu]

I just got a phone with LTE. I also have a 200MB/month limit. Haven't ever gone over once (ie LTE is completely useless for my usage patterns).

 

[ElFenix]

I just got a phone with LTE. I also have a 200MB/month limit. Haven't ever gone over once (ie LTE is completely useless for my usage patterns).

for you individually, yes. for the herd, no. as other posters have mentioned, the spectrum efficiency of LTE is way higher than HSPA so more users can be on at the same time. which indirectly benefits you.

 

[AkumaX]

The "capped data plan" is a money-making gimmick. LTE is not!

 

[jjsbasmt]

Love LTE. Verizon hear out in the country is pretty open. Average of 26 on the down and about 7 on the up. I have never completely used my 4 GB per month allocation. I live along a major highway and can see 6 cell sites from atop a hill near my house. HTC One M8.

 

[vshah]

i get about 25 with hspa and 25 with LTE, but pings and upload on LTE are way better.

 

[MarkXIX]

I've done 27GB so far this month on my unlimited Sprint plan.

 

[KentState]

I've done 27GB so far this month on my unlimited Sprint plan.

Went over 30GB this month. Was on vacation and downloaded a couple games over Steam. Nice not having a cap for that once in a rare time occurrence. Typically I'm around 7-8GB.

 

[Thegonagle]

Not much to say that hasn't been said, but in a nutshell, LTE is fantastic. It makes better use of the available spectrum to serve more users, faster. It'll also eventually support voice calling on all networks. Once LTE coverage is fully built and tuned for coverage identical to current 2G and 3G, it'll allow them to shut down the legacy networks, freeing up spectrum for more LTE and more overall capacity.

The real profit-center scam is the data caps.

 

[Anubis]

shits pretty real

 

[Thegonagle]

Super real. This is on Verizon, today, from my house, showing three signal bars.

Some T-Mobile people are enjoying even better speed, and definitely lower pings.

(I believe Verizon's pings are higher due to their eHRPD system, which I've read is necessary to make their legacy 3G and new 4G play nice with each other.)

I believe my system update from a few days ago enabled Verizons new "XLTE" frequencies (in non-marketing speak, AWS) on my phone, because I've never seen better than about 30 Mbps on the DL before.

 

[rh71]

I use LTE a few times a week (mostly GPS and browsing) and I have not even gone over 500MB in any month ever since I lost my unlimited (down to 6GB limit).