Apple May Be Throttling Verizon iPhone 7 LTE Performance

[iSee]

This is very crappy analysis.

If the bottleneck was modem speed, then you'd expect the the AT&T iPhone to perform at about 3/4ths the speed of the Samsung (450Mb/s vs. 600).

Yet it's at 1/2.

And the Verizon iPhone with the same modem as the Samsung performs similarly to the AT&T iPhone.

So: neither iPhone modem is attaining its potential.
And so: the bottleneck is something other than modem speed.
And so: the motivation the "researchers" ascribe to Apple as the reason for the Verizon iPhone underperforming the Samsung is bullcrap.

It's too bad they aren't able to understand this because they've uncovered an actual problem but are immediately muddying the issue.

The actual problem is: why isn't the iPhone -- BOTH models -- living up to the potential of the modem? There's some bottleneck preventing this, but we don't know what it is. (One thing we know it *isn't* is the modem speed. Poor idiots... there are actually a lot of people these days whose job is essentially technical analysis who have no business analyzing anything.)

 

[thisisnotmyname]

Citation also needed for the "study" in the first post.

Who paid the study?

Who are Cellular Insights costumers?

What does Cellular Insights aim to achieve? Don't big OEMs like Apple and Carriers have their own testing?

Which other studies comprove or disprove the study?

They explain their methodology for the test. You are the one making an assertion that they are biased, the onus is on you to provide any sort of evidence that's the case. At this point it sounds like you are the purveyor of FUD here.

 

[derek4484]

Who cares if the phones are capable of 600 or 450 mbps....the crappy ATT and Verizon networks are so overly congested you're lucky to get 1.5-2 mbps even on LTE. I was getting higher speeds on 3G a few years ago. I have an iPhone 6S on verizon and even when I get 5 bars of LTE I'm lucky to break 1.0 mbps 80-90% of the time. Its ridiculous the prices we pay for wireless data compared to the pathetic speeds they deliver.

 

[paul4339]

http://cellularinsights.com/cellularinsights/

This link doesn't really tell much:

> Our target audience is the end user who is passionate about cellular technology.

A firm doing research based NYC just for "passionate end users"? really?? ...no business model? (Most research firms sell their reports to businesses that need this information to make good decisions) ... don't they have to pay the bills, etc?


.

 

[derek4484]

If you are on CDMA you get hit twice. Bad technology and slower speed. Apple really wants everyone off CDMA that is what's going on. don't be sheep and pay attention. Apple is manipulating us over to ATT which they are secretly buying.

/s /conspiracy theory

LTE is GSM
[doublepost=1479503389][/doublepost]

If I could get to 450Mbps I would take that. Fastest I have seen personally is about 90Mbps and that was only once. On average I see 40-50 so 450-600 is of no concern at this point.

where are you seeing 40-50!? I've never gotten anywhere near that on Verizon, even at 3-4am with full 5 bars most I've ever seen on LTE was about 10-12mbps. During normal operating hours for me, I get anywhere from 0.5 up to a peak of 2.0mbps. Mostly its around 1.0 mbps.

 

[paul4339]

Who cares if the phones are capable of 600 or 450 mbps....the crappy ATT and Verizon networks are so overly congested you're lucky to get 1.5-2 mbps even on LTE. I was getting higher speeds on 3G a few years ago. I have an iPhone 6S on verizon and even when I get 5 bars of LTE I'm lucky to break 1.0 mbps 80-90% of the time. Its ridiculous the prices we pay for wireless data compared to the pathetic speeds they deliver.

Exactly.
Does it make a difference if it's 600 or 450 Mbps?
when (what realistic situations) does that extra 150 Mbps make a difference?
Both of these modems are more than sufficient for realistic situations.

 

[jkozlow3]

Who cares if the phones are capable of 600 or 450 mbps....the crappy ATT and Verizon networks are so overly congested you're lucky to get 1.5-2 mbps even on LTE. I was getting higher speeds on 3G a few years ago. I have an iPhone 6S on verizon and even when I get 5 bars of LTE I'm lucky to break 1.0 mbps 80-90% of the time. Its ridiculous the prices we pay for wireless data compared to the pathetic speeds they deliver.

Exactly.
Does it make a difference if it's 600 or 450 Mbps?
when (what realistic situations) does that extra 150 Mbps make a difference?
Both of these modems are more than sufficient for realistic situations.

I agree. The iPhone hardware is certainly not limiting real-world speeds which are MUCH lower than theoretical maximums. Who cares about theoretical speeds when no carrier ACTUALLY provides speeds anywhere near that once multiple people are connected to the tower? By the time carriers offer 450-600 mbps speeds in the real-world, I'll probably be using an iPhone 12 (or whatever it's called in 5 years)!

Throttle away Apple. No one will notice a difference in real-world use.

 

[dennysanders]

Bad news from Apple and about Apple products just continues and continues.

a 1mb/s difference is really that bad?

 

[BootsWalking]

This link doesn't really tell much:

> Our target audience is the end user who is passionate about cellular technology.

A firm doing research based NYC just for "passionate end users"? really?? ...no business model? (Most research firms sell their reports to businesses that need this information to make good decisions) ... don't they have to pay the bills, etc?


.

Since they were founded only this year I imagine their immediate businesss goal is to get some visibility in the industry. Not sure what there plan could be after that.

 

[Someyoungguy]

BS!

Cellular Insights is a shell company continently created in 2016 by Qualcomm to FUD Intel broadband chips.

That is all they have been doing, and people are eating it!

Who is paying these "studies" after all? Who pays Cellular Insights? Where they get their money. Why did they only appear in 2016, when Apple is using Intel modems?

Also, Qualcomm is the #1 supplier for top of the range SOCs and modems for Android phones.

How do you know this? I couldn't find anything on their ownership or funding, but what you say makes sense considering the ridiculous difference between the max charted speed and 450Mbps.

 

[jessed563]

How do you know this? I couldn't find anything on their ownership or funding, but what you say makes sense considering the ridiculous difference between the max charted speed and 450Mbps.

that is incredibly interesting; i would love to see if he has any citations.

 

[macduke]

I have a Verizon iPhone 7 and just pulled down 31Mbps on two bars in the basement of a large concrete building that used to be a fallout shelter. What are you guys doing with your phones that you would need anything much faster than that? For all the heavy hitting stuff like background iCloud uploads and background app updates, the iPhone is limited to WiFi. At this speed pages open instantly and YouTube buffers quickly. I guess it sucks if Apple did this, but I really doubt most people would ever actually notice unless they're tethered to their Mac and pulling down big files.

 

[kalafalas]

I own a sim-free iPhone 7 (same as Verizon model, a1660) and use it on the AT&T network. Does this mean if I had the locked AT&T model I would be getting better speeds?

Tbh I've been pulling 80-100mbps down even in low signal areas with this thing (in east Bay Area, CA) and I don't know if more speed is necessary...

 

[2298754]

I own a sim-free iPhone 7 (same as Verizon model, a1660) and use it on the AT&T network. Does this mean if I had the locked AT&T model I would be getting better speeds?

No, it's all non-sense. Means nothing.

 

[Dimer]

It appears as if Apple is simply trying to level the playing field. That is not an unreasonable thing to do. Also there may be issues (such as battery life) with running things at the upper range of their capabilities.

 

[TaviDuprix]

As long as this is not repeated in iPhone 8, I can forgive.

 

[jlo1158]

LTE is GSM
[doublepost=1479503389][/doublepost]
where are you seeing 40-50!? I've never gotten anywhere near that on Verizon, even at 3-4am with full 5 bars most I've ever seen on LTE was about 10-12mbps. During normal operating hours for me, I get anywhere from 0.5 up to a peak of 2.0mbps. Mostly its around 1.0 mbps.

I'm currently outside a small town in Georgia. I'm currently getting about 90mbps down and 10 up on AT&T with my Note 5. I actually get better than that at home. I actually downloaded a >1GB file recently. I went to check on it after a few minutes and it had already finished.

 

[DVNIEL]

So everyone hates on Verizon but we have to be the ones that get throttled to let the slower people keep up....

 

[Eso]

Well that's a defacto confirmation. When one model should be performing better than the other, and you say that they perform the same, that means that you've throttled the better one.

 

[macfacts]

This "study" makes no sense at all. There are too many variables. How can they reach this conclusion by using two different modem/carrier combinations?

The only way to really tell if the Qualcomm model is being "throttled" is to use the same provider in both models. They should use TMo/AT&T (since they work with both models) and see if the Intel model is really getting slower speeds. Until then, the study is ********.

You missed the part in the study where they did minimise variables by using an android phone on the same carrier.

 

[DaIfoneboss]

Confirms I'm not going totally crazy when I compared my 6S to the 7. I thought there was something wrong with the phone when running speedtests on the same carrier and saw the 6s maintain margin over the current model. Newer firmwares only seem to have bought it in line with the 6s speeds. I honestly was expecting the 7 to beat it hands down over the 6s regardless of who made the chip.

If your 7 is now performing at same speeds as the 6S cellular data wise then that is most likely the bottleneck from your service connectivity to the tower and a faster modem inside wouldn't make the speeds from the tower any better(if you have tested this with both devices in same spot)

 

[paulyras]

If I could get to 450Mbps I would take that. Fastest I have seen personally is about 90Mbps and that was only once. On average I see 40-50 so 450-600 is of no concern at this point.

Come to Asia. The data speeds here in Singapore are outrageous (relatively easy as it's a tiny country).

That said, the graph in the article is completely borked unless I'm reading it wrong. The units there are single megabits. Something seems very wrong about that. Am I confused?

 

[Cineplex]

They had to throttle it!!! If you send too many emojis too quick you open a tear in the space time continuum.

 

[2298754]

You missed the part in the study where they did minimise variables by using an android phone on the same carrier.

That really doesn't mean much. All carriers use load-balancing technology.

There is no rule that two devices on the same network need to get the same speeds in the same location. That's not how it works.

You could have two Verizon devices next to each other and one could have its PCC on B13 and the other on B4. The phone using B4 as its PCC would achieve faster speeds due to the larger spectrum allocation. As I said before, too many variables.

 

[Dirtfarmer]

Does Apple not think that this stuff will get on the internet??

I mean come. On.