LTE-Is there a point?

[Enigmoid]

I keep hearing about how LTE is the future and can seemingly hit speeds of up to 21 mbps. I wonder though: Is that speed necessary for a phone?

My phone is a good deal slower than most, being a year old (1.2 ghz dual core snapdragon) and even on crappy 5 mbps wifi I am almost always limited by the fact that my phone cannot load the page quickly (takes about three time longer than my laptop) rather than network speeds. I can see the need for sufficient bandwidth to be able to watch video on a cellphone (I don't think 1080p is really needed now as well given how few screens can actually natively display it and how hard its going to be to see a difference). If you look at it I bet that many people have much slower home internet (being shared across all devices at their house) than LTE speeds.

But how many people really NEED that speed on their phone? Given the price of data (I am in canada and plans are a good deal more expensive on a three year contract) does anyone actually download large files through 4g? Realistically how many people are doing anything more than browsing the internet or possibly watching a movie on their phone?

 

[dguy6789]

Streaming music? Web browsing while listening to streaming music? Buying and downloading music? Downloading apps(some apps are hundreds of megs now)? YouTube videos?

I love not having to care if I'm on WiFi or not if I want to download one or many large files. LTE definitely is massively faster for web browsing also. Modern smartphones have 2-4x the CPU power of a 1.2ghz dual core snapdragon s3

 

[destrekor]

uh... yes. Absolutely.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

I think LTE is one of the most overhyped cell technologies I've seen recently. With decent signal I constantly get 7-15Mbps on T-Mobile's DC-HSPA+, and that's a 3G technology. LTE is maybe faster by what, 1-2Mbps? And that's talking about Verizon's LTE. AT&T's LTE only seems to be about the same speed as T-Mobile's DC-HSPA+.

 

[Enigmoid]

What I'm asking is compared to regular 3g is there enough of a difference?

I may be looking at this differently from you as in canada 1 GB/month plans cost ~$65 for three years.

Honestly do you really need 21 mbps to stream music and browse the web? Thats easily possible on 4-6 mbps.

 

[destrekor]

I think LTE is one of the most overhyped cell technologies I've seen recently. With decent signal I constantly get 7-15Mbps on T-Mobile's DC-HSPA+, and that's a 3G technology. LTE is maybe faster by what, 1-2Mbps? And that's talking about Verizon's LTE. AT&T's LTE only seems to be about the same speed as T-Mobile's DC-HSPA+.

LTE speed is not the same everywhere.

It's not like bandwidth is magically created simply because a few cell sites spring up somewhere. Bandwidth is a finite resource that requires the cell tower operator to install dedicated or shared trunk lines.
And there's also the factor of how many users on competing for the bandwidth of that tower you are on.


I've seen as much as 25Mbps on my phone - I've seen screenshots of over 40Mbps.
I can consistently pull at least 20Mbps if I am near the towers in my region - but at home, I barely pull 1 bar and typically means I only get a few megabits at most.

LTE as it is installed today, should technically be capable of roughly 100Mbps. For a few users, if not entire neighborhoods, to be able to get anywhere near that, Verizon (or whoever) would have to dedicate an epic amount of bandwidth for every cell tower. The cost of that is ungodly in most areas of the U.S., due to population density and rate of expansion/buildup/growth of bandwidth.

 

[foghorn67]

I think LTE is one of the most overhyped cell technologies I've seen recently. With decent signal I constantly get 7-15Mbps on T-Mobile's DC-HSPA+, and that's a 3G technology. LTE is maybe faster by what, 1-2Mbps? And that's talking about Verizon's LTE. AT&T's LTE only seems to be about the same speed as T-Mobile's DC-HSPA+.

Most LTE bands are better at going through walls and car roofs. Meaning, it's better IRL.

 

[s44]

Depends what your fallback is.

If your carrier offers DC-HSPA, not much difference unless you're gaming over a tethered connection (LTE has much better latency).

If you fall back to EVDO, it makes a *huge* difference.

 

[Anubis]

seeing as VZWs network is such crap it cant handle streaming music over 3G properly yes LTE is needed

 

[ChronoReverse]

My LTE gives me almost 40mbps down and 10mbps down. The ping is lower too (responds faster).

 

[crab0]

On my old GS 2 HD LTE, which was slow as shit cause of crap GPU + high res screen, LTE>DC-HSPA+>>>>>HSPA+. I notice a difference on a phone slower than you but the difference between it and a good DC-HSPA+ signal is that noticeable.

On my GS3 on the other hand I do notice the difference more as is less bottlenecked by the SoC.

I absolutely want this speed, not only does it make casual tasks much faster but the difference (especially from 5-6mbpa HSPA level) for HD Youtube but also downloading large apps, torrents (yes torrents), and picture collections. I am in Canada but I have a 6GB plan, which I have almost gone over twice

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I think LTE is one of the most overhyped cell technologies I've seen recently. With decent signal I constantly get 7-15Mbps on T-Mobile's DC-HSPA+, and that's a 3G technology. LTE is maybe faster by what, 1-2Mbps? And that's talking about Verizon's LTE. AT&T's LTE only seems to be about the same speed as T-Mobile's DC-HSPA+.

That's cuz T-Mobile isn't overly crowded. LTE isn't just faster by 1-2mbps. Maybe at peak times maybe. I can get ridiculously fast speeds. In most of Asia, I'm limited to 3mbps or so, so LTE is a huge boost.

In addition to that, in most places with HSPA/HSDPA/3G, especially cities, you get a lot of data congestion. I can see my phone trying once or twice before establishing that connection. You can get a solid 1sec latency easily as your phone ramps up to HSPA+. LTE doesn't deal with that, and the latency is much better.

In this sense, LTE is more battery friendly, unless you download more. It's about the race to idle, and to me that's a big benefit to battery, as shown in Anandtech's battery tests.

Furthermore, I'm not sure where they get these crappy LTE numbers because I see tons of people talking about 25mbps or ridiculous speeds better than home internet. I easily get teens and even on the worst day it's like 13mbps or so on Verizon. I know AT&T's faster, but I haven't tried since 2012 since I do not have an LTE AT&T phone in action anymore.

Anyway, I feel you only think this way because of T-Mobile. AT&T's overcrowded, and Verizon gets dog slow 3G. So yeah for those 2, it's critical. For all the 3G networks I've used around the world, I'd say congestion is pretty bad.

 

[KentState]

There is a significant difference in speed on Verizon between LTE and CDMA. T-Mobile barely has coverage in some areas around me and only slightly more functional in other areas so it doesn't factor in. Overall, I pay the same price, so LTE is worth it for me.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

No reason once you get throttled a week into your billing cycle.

 

[ControlD]

There is a significant difference in speed on Verizon between LTE and CDMA. T-Mobile barely has coverage in some areas around me and only slightly more functional in other areas so it doesn't factor in. Overall, I pay the same price, so LTE is worth it for me.

That is exactly right. My wife and I are both on Verizon. I have a 4S and the wife has a SG3. I can type a url in on my iPhone, set it down and then type in the same on the SG3. Every time the page will be loaded and ready on the SG3 before it is on the iPhone. Most times the page will still be about half loaded on the iPhone in fact. The speed difference is quite noticeable and well worth it.

 

[Chiropteran]

It's needed for verizon, because verizon 3g is crap. With a better 3g network like HSPA+ it's not really needed.

 

[A5]

I think LTE is one of the most overhyped cell technologies I've seen recently. With decent signal I constantly get 7-15Mbps on T-Mobile's DC-HSPA+, and that's a 3G technology. LTE is maybe faster by what, 1-2Mbps? And that's talking about Verizon's LTE. AT&T's LTE only seems to be about the same speed as T-Mobile's DC-HSPA+.

Where I live, T-Mo is 5-6 Mbps and AT&T and Verizon LTE both sit in the 15-20 range.

LTE also brings a lot of other enhancements that make the network better for everyone, even if they aren't apparent to the end-user.

 

[lothar]

LTE is absolutely needed for Sprint and Verizon because their 3G is complete shit(especially Sprint).
LTE is needed on AT&T due to overcrowding and AT&T being cheap in not enabling DC-HSPA+.

LTE is not needed on T-Mobile if you have DC-HSPA+. All LTE provides is a lower latency on T-Mobile. Maybe with LTE-Advanced, or if the iPhone crowd comes running to T-Mobile like they did to Sprint and they're not prepared for it, things might change.

 

[sze5003]

I enjoy it a lot but I still have unlimited data. At work I can't connect to their WiFi so steaming music would blow through the data cap if I didn't have unlimited.

If I was capped I really wouldn't care for it because I would need to use it less.

 

[SunnyD]

LTE's technical merits outweigh their consumer merits. HSPA+ is just as fast as current iterations of LTE, if not faster. So why LTE? For the same reason HSPA supplanted EDGE which supplanted GPRS in the long term: Better bandwidth efficiency. The better the efficiency, the more people per tower carriers can pack on and the less in infrastructure costs which directly show up as returns in terms of profits.

 

[Red Storm]

These aren't just phones, they're hand held computers. On top of streaming music, they also stream video (Youtube, Netflix, Hulu, etc.) and faster speeds are very nice to have here. There's also file downloading and uploading, which is a must especially for recorded video.

 

[badb0y]

I need 10G

 

[adt002]

absolutely..

 

[Insomniator]

LTE is [absolutely] awesome. Consistently get 20Mbps (verizon) which is faster than my work connection. Can tether to my laptop and have great speeds anywhere its available.

No profanity in the tech forums, please
-ViRGE

 

[Leon]

I'll take 300 - 500Gb that I pull monthly from T-Mo "slow" ~10mbps HSPA+ network over 5Gb of LTE data on Verizon/ATT any day

Whats the point of all the sweet bandwidth if you can't use it. At 30Mbps you'll burn through cap in less than 30 minutes.

Leon