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Let's Get Real: Who CARES About LTE?

AustinIllini said:
Get an LTE phone and see. It's really amazing how fast it is. You'll burn through it like nothing.
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First, just want to clarify that I wasn't directing my comment directly at you--just realized my reply looks that why and no offense intended.

I have a new iPad with LTE and yes, download/upload speeds are awesomely fast. My point was though that a fixed piece of data's size doesn't change depending on the speed of your internet connection. If a webpage is 1 MB, it's always 1 MB and the being able to download it faster doesn't change the fact that you will have just downloaded 1 MB. Checking my email will download the same amount of data, viewing a webpage, etc.

The only reason a person will go through more data is because they do more that requires a data connection. If you do EXACTLY the same things over 3G vs. LTE, your data usage will not go up by much (maybe a higher quality stream if you don't limit it, etc). If you decided to stream MORE or browse the web MORE because LTE speeds download pages faster and you elect to use that extra time to go to additional websites, that's on you as a user, not LTE.
 
As far as LTE is concerned, the UK is years behind the rest of the world.
So for us in the UK LTE is of no importance until iPhone 6 the earliest, unless we travel to anywhere else in the world.
 
tbayrgs said:
First, just want to clarify that I wasn't directing my comment directly at you--just realized my reply looks that why and no offense intended.

I have a new iPad with LTE and yes, download/upload speeds are awesomely fast. My point was though that a fixed piece of data's size doesn't change depending on the speed of your internet connection. If a webpage is 1 MB, it's always 1 MB and the being able to download it faster doesn't change the fact that you will have just downloaded 1 MB. Checking my email will download the same amount of data, viewing a webpage, etc.

The only reason a person will go through more data is because they do more that requires a data connection. If you do EXACTLY the same things over 3G vs. LTE, your data usage will not go up by much (maybe a higher quality stream if you don't limit it, etc). If you decided to stream MORE or browse the web MORE because LTE speeds download pages faster and you elect to use that extra time to go to additional websites, that's on you as a user, not LTE.
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No offense taken. For me, it was crazy that my LTE connection was faster than my Wi-Fi connection.
 
As I mentioned in another thread. I'm getting LTE signal in spots where 3G is completely dead. That alone makes it worth it.

I also get amazing speed as you see in the screenshot. This is what I get on average.
 

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No 4G NO Iphone! S3 it is. I am on Sprint and NO WAY can I live with sprints 3g for another year! I live in Chicago now and LTE is coming within months.
 
Thus far LTE is the *only* feature I care about for the next iphone. If for whatever reason it did not have it I would not buy it. It is that simple.

3g is quite often far too slow for me.
 
I am divided on LTE vs 4G. I don't have LTE at my residence but when I go downtown I do. I would consider an international quad core processor over my current dual core.

I will never go over my 5 GB data plan so faster or a little slower makes no difference, however when LTE expands to my area, it will be pretty cool. I love new tech.
 
You have to be kidding me! That's the only thing on the new iPhone that would even make it worthwhile to purchase. What else do you get? A half inch bigger screen!!! Wow, LTE is a must and once you have it you will never want to be without it!
 
Dwalls90 said:
3G and HSPDA+ is pretty darn fast already, though we know LTE puts it to shame. But let's be realistic, with the average data plan being 3072 megabytes (for a feasible monthly plan, since LTE Unlimited plans are either going to not be grandfathered or become nearly nonexistent for the average user), WHAT is the point exactly of LTE Data? Ok, so I can download at 8 megabytes per second. That means I can drain my 3072 monthly megabyte data plan watching HD Netflix in a matter of 6 minutes. Or I can stream in total about 425 songs for a month, assuming no other data usage at all. Sure, maybe Netflix doesn't use that much data yet necessarily, but higher resolution devices and increases in streaming quality will only draw more data. Assume Netflix uses only 2 megabytes per second instead of 8, that means still a measly 24 minutes a month!

Wouldn't you rather see lower data prices and higher data packages rather than faster network speeds? I don't need to download my 7 megabyte song in one second. I'd rather be able to download or stream 2000 songs and have them each take 5-10 seconds to stream or download. Or be able to watch Netflix for an hour on my network, rather than for a measly few minutes.

EDIT: I think people are missing my point. So if we can have faster download speeds, thus more bandwidth and efficient networks, why not split these speeds to permit higher data limits for lower costs. I'd rather have my LTE speeds "split" so that my 2Gb plan becomes an 8Gb plan for the same monthly cost. I'd rather take 2 megabytes/s for 8Gb than 8 megabytes/s for 2Gb.

Anyone see this?
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You have bytes and bits mixed up. Netflix (on the computer) uses about 1.5 megaBITS per second. That's around 0.2 megaBYTES per second. However, they compress the crap out of the mobile feeds so it's probably less than that.

What LTE will do is enable higher quality youtube, speed up: web browsing, downloads, icloud syncing and apps and improve large download speeds (i.e. big documents, pictures, MMS movies etc.)

You're never going to get the cell carriers to lower their rates. You will get them to speed up their service though. 3G is not going to be adequate forever, we will need LTE. So why not use it now?
 
I'm already on a grandfathered unlimited LTE plan, so I'm very much looking forward to having it on both my phones, not just my windows phone
 
beamer8912 said:
You have bytes and bits mixed up. Netflix (on the computer) uses about 1.5 megaBITS per second. That's around 0.2 megaBYTES per second. However, they compress the crap out of the mobile feeds so it's probably less than that.

What LTE will do is enable higher quality youtube, speed up: web browsing, downloads, icloud syncing and apps and improve large download speeds (i.e. big documents, pictures, MMS movies etc.)

You're never going to get the cell carriers to lower their rates. You will get them to speed up their service though. 3G is not going to be adequate forever, we will need LTE. So why not use it now?
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No I'm not. Verizon's LTE has max recorded speeds of about 64 megaBITS, hence I divided that by 8 to arrive at about 8 megaBYTES. And on my new iPad I've recorded NetFlix pulling down way more than the less than 200 kiloBYTES you presumed.
 
Dwalls90 said:
No I'm not. Verizon's LTE has max recorded speeds of about 64 megaBITS, hence I divided that by 8 to arrive at about 8 megaBYTES. And on my new iPad I've recorded NetFlix pulling down way more than the less than 200 kiloBYTES you presumed.
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Wasn't talking about the max speed, just the netflix usage. You said 2 MB/s, I provided official netflix documents saying otherwise. I don't know how you can really argue with that.

More than likely you were seeing other apps using data.
 
Could care less about LTE considering I don't even have 3G in my area.

I do find it funny how everyone cries about 4G, LTE, ect when in a lot of places EDGE is still the fastest available without hooking to wifi.

Around me I wifi hop if I need/want to do anything of importance. So until the services are in my area, could care less about them.
 
I definitely care about LTE. 3G in my area is not that good. And HSPA+? That is even worse! When I got my new iPad, it was an AT&T one. But the HSPA+ was so horrible - it was actually worse than 3G - that I exchanged it for the Verizon one and I have been happy since. I care so much that when the next iPhone comes out, if AT&T does not have a plan to have LTE in my area, I will probably switch my phone to Verizon also.
 
Wirelessly posted

3G was fast enough for me. I mostly use cellular data in my breaks at work.

Then I got a job where I have poor signal. The connection is painfully slow. I'd love LTE if it sped up my Internet at work.
 
LTE is very important especially for me since I have the grandfathered unlimited plan.

My HTC One X is 2-4 times faster than my cable broadband... so yes LTE is a must have for any of my future phones.


Also for some reason I haven't been throttled whenever i past 4 gb. I went up to 8 gb once and still have the blazing fast LTE speed.
 
MacDawg said:
I still don't understand how people use so much data per month
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App downloads/ youtube streaming/ tethering/ navigation/ music and photo sharing/ cloud/ internet radio/ internet video/ software updates etc etc.


Problem is if you don't use it you assume others don't too. One size does not fit all.

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bjones521 said:
No 4G NO Iphone! S3 it is. I am on Sprint and NO WAY can I live with sprints 3g for another year! I live in Chicago now and LTE is coming within months.
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Doesn't the nexus also support LTE? The Verizon/Sprint one?

Everytime someone buys a non-AOSP android phone, somewhere a kitten dies.
 
With Verizon, simultaneous voice and data is only capable on three 3G/4G handsets on the 3G network or over LTE. iPhone is not one of those handsets that allows voice data over 3G, so I care about the new iPhone and LTE.
 
^ wait so can you do voice & data on any LTE phones or only 3 of them? Confused.

Anyway I care about 4G LTE and since I have unlimited it's time I started using my data plan. Switching to S3 in a couple days!
 
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