You sure on that? I'd agree with you if people were getting moderately high speeds. We're talking about 450 mbps vs 600 mbps LTE modems. I haven't heard of any regions getting anywhere near that.
Yes, if you're nearing the peak (say, AT&T is delivering you 400), you might get better results with the 600, because you rarely get a perfect signal. But currently, the 2016 4G average is 9.9 Mbps.
Even if you're in a region getting 50 mbps peak, I don't think you're going to be affected. By the time we start hitting 200 mbps peaks and this might start to matter, the phone will likely be obsolete.
It's like debating whether 802.11n or 802.11ac will get you better speeds out of your 10 mbps internet connection. (Ignoring the range differences between those standards.)
Yes, I am 100% sure about that. Let me explain.
When it comes to LTE modems, the advertised peak speed is essentially short-hand for a bundle of underlying technologies.
For example, an LTE modem that supports 450 Mbps peak download speed (Cat 9) means that it features:
- Aggregating three LTE connections simultaneously
- Receiving data on two antennas simultaneously
- Enough signal processing horsepower to decode a max of 6 bits out of information out of every LTE transmission received from the tower.
On the other hand, a modem that support 600 Mbps peak download speed (Cat 12) means that in addition to all of the above, it can decode 8 bits out of every LTE transmission from the tower. It also supports features like receiving data on 4 antennas simultaneously instead of only 2.
Now, why do you as the user care?
Because receiving data on 3 connections simultaneously is faster than receiving on only one connection. The typical LTE smartphone has peak 150 Mbps LTE download speed, which is possible with only one LTE connection. Let's say that out of the 150 peak, you're getting 9.9 Mbps in the real world. Well, now let's say you have a modem with 450 Mbps peak. That 9.9 could become ~ 30 Mbps. Triple the actual real-world speed. And if you had a modem that went further by supporting the more sophisticated signal processing, that real-world speed gets an addition 33% boost, going from 30 Mbps to 40 Mbps.
So will you ever achieve those peak theoretical speeds? No. But what you will really get is the *relative gain*. That's the important thing here. These features are all speed multipliers, independent of what the absolute value of the speeds you're getting.
Here's a video that shows the effect of carrier aggregation - going from 110 Mbps to 220 Mbps peak on Sprint's network. Did the phone with carrier aggregation
actually get 220 Mbps? No. But it did get twice the speed of the phone that doesn't support carrier aggregation.
And yes indeed, these feature are actually really launched in other networks around the world. Australia, South Korea, Japan...and they will indeed be launched in the US over the next year. How long does the average user keep their phone? Having these features built into the phone means that a year after purchase the phone gets
better as the operators turn on those features in their networks. How many other technologies inside a phone get better with age instead of worse?
