If you're wondering, 4G LTE isn't really 4G...

ayeying · Dec 30, 2011

So I saw this article and it was interesting.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/01/technology/4g_myth/index.htm?iid=EL

So apparently, the actual speed of the 3 carriers, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile have similar 4G speeds at ~10Mbps

I guess we're all complaining about the iPhone 4S not being 4G, we forget that, we should be complaining to the networks for not being able to provide real 4G speeds in the first place.

Just saying...

andyx3x · Dec 30, 2011

ayeying said:
So I saw this article and it was interesting.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/01/technology/4g_myth/index.htm?iid=EL

So apparently, the actual speed of the 3 carriers, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile have similar 4G speeds at ~10Mbps

I guess we're all complaining about the iPhone 4S not being 4G, we forget that, we should be complaining to the networks for not being able to provide real 4G speeds in the first place.

Just saying...

So, so wrong. Sprint and T-Mobile's 4G speeds are no where near Verizon's. Verizon's 4G is faster than my home Wi-Fi. The others are not even close.

Intell · Dec 30, 2011

I've had my 4S surpass my sister's Galaxy Nexus in terms of ping time and raw download speeds. Tested in downtown Pittsburgh and in the rural surrounding areas. The article is stating the rather sad truth, America's cellular network is just not the greatest anymore.

FreakinEurekan · Dec 30, 2011

Intell said:
The article is stating the rather sad truth, America's cellular network is just not the greatest anymore.

Fastest, maybe. Greatest? Find one within an order of magnitude of the size of Verizon or AT&T with better speeds, then you can talk about "great".

chakraj · Dec 30, 2011

it depends on area and congestion. My new Nexus is doing 25Mb down while out and about and 10Mb down in the brick building i live in. The best my i4S ever saw was 6.5Mb down and that was with the wind to its back going down hill

But you are correct "Real 4G" is like over 100Mb down. We are still at 3.5G

LTE advanced will be real 4G.

lordofthereef · Dec 30, 2011

What I don;t understand is why so many people make such a big deal about "real 4G". It's faster, it's pretty easy to find out what theoretical and actual speeds will be in your area on said "4G", so why sit here worrying about semantics. It's not like you are being duped into buying a car and being sold a tractor instead. It's a simple marketing term and you will still reach whatever peak speeds that are being advertised, in perfect conditions.

Leonard1818 · Dec 30, 2011

Man, it'd almost be worthwhile for me to convert my verizon unlimited line that I have now to a 4G LTE phone, root it, and tether... then "add a line" for my iPhone that I carry with... then give time warner the big middle finger since they can only bring me about 8MBPS

lordofthereef · Dec 30, 2011

Leonard1818 said:
Man, it'd almost be worthwhile for me to convert my verizon unlimited line that I have now to a 4G LTE phone, root it, and tether... then "add a line" for my iPhone that I carry with... then give time warner the big middle finger since they can only bring me about 8MBPS

Verizon throttles your unlimited data if you are in the top 5% of users I believe.

chakraj · Dec 30, 2011

Verizon is only throttling 3G plans. They are not throttling 4G. There was one story about a guy who did 65 gigs on 13 days being throttled, but no confirmation. Another person in the story did 110gigs in ten days and was not throttled. I think they both need to use wifi, it's people like that that ruin it for everyone.

BlizzardBolt · Dec 30, 2011

Verizon has true 4G, other carriers are only improving on their 3G and marketing such as 3G. Although 4G on verizon is nowhere near "ordinary" 4G speeds, that number is quite outlandish Verizon's 4G LTE is and should be consider the only 4G network.

wordoflife · Dec 30, 2011

Verizon does have superior 4G speeds compared to AT&T and Sprint. Verizon also seems to realize the limitations of CDMA so they're rolling out LTE pretty fast.

However, I'm not complaining with 7-10Mbps speeds on 3G on AT&T. AT&T has good speeds. The only problem is that its more or less 3G and not LTE ... so can't say they have an LTE network even though their speeds can be as fast as Verizon's LTE at some places.

I've seen LTE hit 30Mbps though.

Buckeyestar · Dec 30, 2011

BlizzardBolt said:
Verizon has true 4G, other carriers are only improving on their 3G and marketing such as 3G. Although 4G on verizon is nowhere near "ordinary" 4G speeds, that number is quite outlandish Verizon's 4G LTE is and should be consider the only 4G network.

Get your facts straight. AT&T has "true" 4G as well. What you call "true" is just LTE, and Verizon isn't the only US carrier using it.

himynameiscody · Dec 31, 2011

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

lordofthereef said:
Leonard1818 said:

Man, it'd almost be worthwhile for me to convert my verizon unlimited line that I have now to a 4G LTE phone, root it, and tether... then "add a line" for my iPhone that I carry with... then give time warner the big middle finger since they can only bring me about 8MBPS

Click to expand...

Verizon throttles your unlimited data if you are in the top 5% of users I believe.

What range would be top 5%

nizmoz · Dec 31, 2011

chakraj said:
Verizon is only throttling 3G plans. They are not throttling 4G. There was one story about a guy who did 65 gigs on 13 days being throttled, but no confirmation. Another person in the story did 110gigs in ten days and was not throttled. I think they both need to use wifi, it's people like that that ruin it for everyone.

Actually they are. I posted articles on this recently.

----------

wordoflife said:
Verizon does have superior 4G speeds compared to AT&T and Sprint. Verizon also seems to realize the limitations of CDMA so they're rolling out LTE pretty fast.

However, I'm not complaining with 7-10Mbps speeds on 3G on AT&T. AT&T has good speeds. The only problem is that its more or less 3G and not LTE ... so can't say they have an LTE network even though their speeds can be as fast as Verizon's LTE at some places.

I've seen LTE hit 30Mbps though.

50mb down with AT&T. Per tests AT&T is faster

Stealthipad · Dec 31, 2011

So many "claims", so few facts!

mpossoff · Dec 31, 2011

I think AT&T missed the LTE boat waiting for the merger and in the meantime VZW been buying all the good spectrum.

BiggAW · Dec 31, 2011

I think WiMax and LTE should be called 4G, as they are a generation past enhanced 3G/HSPA+, and are IP based.

bowlerman625 · Dec 31, 2011

ayeying said:
So I saw this article and it was interesting.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/01/technology/4g_myth/index.htm?iid=EL

So apparently, the actual speed of the 3 carriers, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile have similar 4G speeds at ~10Mbps

I guess we're all complaining about the iPhone 4S not being 4G, we forget that, we should be complaining to the networks for not being able to provide real 4G speeds in the first place.

Just saying...

Thank you for this PSA

corrado7 · Dec 31, 2011

Why are we discussing 1 year old article????

pilot1226 · Dec 31, 2011

himynameiscody said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

What range would be top 5%

I believe there was talk that AT&T customers were getting messages from the network that anything OVER 2GB put them into the top 5% tier of users. This is probably comparable to Verizon, give or take.

If you're wondering, 4G LTE isn't really 4G...

macrumors 601

macrumors 65816

macrumors P6

macrumors 604

macrumors 65816

macrumors G5

macrumors 68020

macrumors G5

macrumors 65816

macrumors 6502

macrumors 604

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 65816

macrumors 68040

macrumors 68020

macrumors 68030

macrumors 68020

macrumors regular

macrumors 6502a

Our Staff