Right, let's have the government spend more money they don't have to provide more entitlements to those that don't need it.
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Verizon's LTE Network to Reach Two-Thirds of U.S. Population This Week
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Right, let's have the government spend more money they don't have to provide more entitlements to those that don't need it.
I can too. I'll take a good look around when I upgrade, but overall I've been pretty happy with AT&T. I get great coverage virtually everywhere I go, voice and data.
And by looking at the competition, I'm talking about T-Mobile and Sprint. Verizon will NEVER get another dime of my money. They're crooks. Both my wife and I had horrible experiences with them.
Sprint's unlimited data is sure intriguing. Here's to hoping that their network improves before the iPhone 5. (It probably won't.)
And I know people who swear by T-Mobile, but they don't carry the iPhone. But who knows? Maybe that will change.
I'll go wherever I can get an iPhone with decent coverage and voice/data simultaneously, at a reasonable rate.
Maybe it's worth the wait....latest PC World test shows AT&T is fastest at 4G LTE download....and better experience when going in/out of 4G LTE areas.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2538...own_which_networks_are_fastest.html#tk.hp_new
This reminds me about establishing electricity to rural areas in the 1930s:
Rural electrification
President Franklin Roosevelt established the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) under authority of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935. At the time, only 10 percent of the nations farms had electricity. The situation was much better in the Northwest, where 47.5 percent of the farms in Washington, 27.5 percent of the farms in Oregon, and 29.8 percent in Idaho had electricity. In Montana, only 5.5 percent of the farms had electricity.
The rural electrification program proved popular and, in 1936, Congress established a 10-year loan program for utilities to extend power lines to rural customers, but many existing utilities remained reluctant to do so because of the cost it was more expensive per customer to build and maintain lines to rural customers than to those who lived in cities and towns. In response to the utilities reluctance, electric cooperatives formed to take advantage of the loan program.
References:
http://www.nwcouncil.org/history/RuralElectrification.asp
http://www.missoulaelectric.com/About_Us/History_of_MEC
Verizon will face the same problem once the next iPhone is released--except their average speeds are already lower than AT&T's.
In any case, even AT&T's HSPA+ network gets pretty close to the average speeds of Verizon's LTE.
The qualcomm phones like the rezound and incredible 2 can also use voice and data at the same time on cdma 3g as well.
You need to check your facts. AT&T has both LTE and HSPA+. Both are defined as 4G according to the ITU.
With LTE and HSPA+, AT&T covers more people than Verizon. If you are on Verizon and you leave their LTE footprint (easy to do still), you also lose data/voice multitasking. I'm not really sure what happens....does the call drop or do you freeze up all your data sessions?
Such redundancy has advantages in case of a major outage by one carrier. You can almost always ask to borrow a phone from someone on a different carrier that's still working.
It also means greater capacity in any area, due to multiple carriers each with their own customers and access frequencies/methods.
That describes AT&T's way of doing business. They tend to stick to highly populated areas.
Verizon has always been about their total network and having access even in the boondocks. They expanded their 3G into all their markets many years ago, and they intend to cover their entire footprint with LTE as well.
Same here. Grandfathered into unlimited LTE on Verizon.
3G CDMA does support it if a phone has SVDO capability. There have been a couple of phones, HTC if I recall correctly, with SVDO. Thunderbolt. Rezound, I think.
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Was that before or after Verizon decided to stop advancing their 3G services?
There's a reason my iP4s on AT&T gets between 8 to 10 mbps down, while my friend on Verizon gets 3 mbps
Verizon 4G LTE does allow for that. Verizon 3G does not.
4G will also PROBABLY allow facetime as well. Tango and Skype work really well for droids out of wifi, so hopefully the 4G iphones will let us do that.
Just like the previous iPhones, I would assume video chatting over cellular data will be a carrier dependent feature
Yeah, you know that's not going to last for long.
I think Verizon's being smart by trying to set the expectation of how life will be once there's 20 million iPhone users on their LTE network.
...and 40 million Androids.
Yeah turns out you have unlimited 3G data. As many VZ and ATT customers are discovering, transitioning to 4G LTE requires that you give up your lock-in and get on the price-per-byte treadmill.
Absolutely untrue with regards to Verizon. Ask me how I know.
Question for anyone with some insight...
Most reports say AT&T's limited 4G service IS a bit faster than Verizon's much more extensive rollout. Both are very, very fast but AT&T is a bit faster. Some assume that it might simply be there are very few devices using 4G on the AT&T network compared to many more 4G device's on Verizon that is contributing to the speed difference and that naturally AT&T will slow down as more people join the service... but is there any way it could be a TECHNICAL difference? It appears although both are "LTE" they are enough differences to require a different chipset for the time being so could it be that AT&T's system is just plain faster? I ask because I am fairly certain I am leaving AT&T for the first time since I got the iPhone 3G years ago (I'm on the 4 right now and out of contract shortly) to go to Verizon for their more extensive network but am curious if AT&T has some speed upper hand that might be worth thinking about...
Thanks.
Most reports say AT&T's limited 4G service IS a bit faster than Verizon's much more extensive rollout. Both are very, very fast but AT&T is a bit faster. Some assume that it might simply be there are very few devices using 4G on the AT&T network compared to many more 4G device's on Verizon that is contributing to the speed difference and that naturally AT&T will slow down as more people join the service... but is there any way it could be a TECHNICAL difference? It appears although both are "LTE" they are enough differences to require a different chipset for the time being so could it be that AT&T's system is just plain faster? I ask because I am fairly certain I am leaving AT&T for the first time since I got the iPhone 3G years ago (I'm on the 4 right now and out of contract shortly) to go to Verizon for their more extensive network but am curious if AT&T has some speed upper hand that might be worth thinking about...
Thanks.
Yeah turns out you have unlimited 3G data. As many VZ and ATT customers are discovering, transitioning to 4G LTE requires that you give up your lock-in and get on the price-per-byte treadmill.
No. I had the iphone 4 and upgraded to the thunderbolt for the unlimited 4g. I use 10 gbs per month no problems.
AT&T's LTE cap goes to 5GB before throttling on the cellular plans, 3G is throttled after 3GB on cellular. iPad UL Data is unthrottled and unlimited. Uncertain why you switched it. Also with the throttled cellular, it's not like data just stops altogether - but like you said its only $12.50 extra per month.
AT&T does have LTE. Read up on the subject before advertising your intelligence.
Actually, this has already been done. I can't recall if it was part of the TARP fund or another bill altogether. Either way, the feds have already put up several billion dollars which were specifically designated to bring broadband to rural markets. As with most things, this money was not used as intended - the big players found ways to spend that money which may have followed the "letter" but not the "intent."
As other have mentioned, there is a "public good" factor which applies to public utilities and quasi-monopolies. The bandwidth these companies use is also considered to be "owned" by "the people" and regulated by the government. Once the spectrum/bandwidth is licensed to a company, they have an effective monopoly.
Just like the electricity example already pointed out, there is good reason to bring broadband and connectivity to everyone in the country - even where is is not overly profitable to do so (it can still be done at a profit). If nothing else, the need to support and maintain "legacy" technology in rural areas is a real cost for a company like Verizon. Upgrading might be a big expense now, but could save money over time if the upgrade is replacing outdated technology.
Why Does LTE Fly Through Data?
My problem is that when I activate LTE on my Verizon iPad it flies through the data. I can use a GB in a day or two without streaming music or video or anything like that. Just web surfing occasionally.
If I deactivate LTE (falling back to just the 3G) with the same usage pattern, data is very slowly used (as I would expect from just web surfing a bit).
So, basically I'm paying for Verizon's fancy LTE, and its speed is glorious, but I can't use it so long as it keeps flying through the data. My bill becomes outrageous.
And so far I've had no luck as to determining why this is happening. I'm keeping daily tabs of use. It's almost like it starts buffering crap when LTE is activated. It's weird.
My problem is that when I activate LTE on my Verizon iPad it flies through the data. I can use a GB in a day or two without streaming music or video or anything like that. Just web surfing occasionally.
If I deactivate LTE (falling back to just the 3G) with the same usage pattern, data is very slowly used (as I would expect from just web surfing a bit).
So, basically I'm paying for Verizon's fancy LTE, and its speed is glorious, but I can't use it so long as it keeps flying through the data. My bill becomes outrageous.
And so far I've had no luck as to determining why this is happening. I'm keeping daily tabs of use. It's almost like it starts buffering crap when LTE is activated. It's weird.
Yeah, you know that's not going to last for long.
I think Verizon's being smart by trying to set the expectation of how life will be once there's 20 million iPhone users on their LTE network.
I agree. However, that's still a MASSIVE improvement over the .37 Mbps down and .16 Mbps up that I'm getting on Sprint. Bring on the LTE iPhone and I'll switch to Verizon in a heartbeat!
(of course, that's a best case scenario)----------
That's still 8-10x what I get on sprint, and I'm in an area where sprint is "pretty good"
Curse small college towns...
