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Comments on news posted 2012-11-15 07:45:35: AT&T's LTE deployment continues to gain steam, with the company announcing availability of the faster wireless network in another eight markets. ..


FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5

Premium Member

LTE coverage in non-listed areas

And apparently AT&T is upgrading to LTE in areas they aren't prepared to announce yet. Parts of Southern New Jersey are showing LTE coverage even though the Philadelphia metro area or anywhere in NJ aren't listed.

A friend was getting AT&T LTE coverage on his iPhone yesterday in South Jersey.
xenophon
join:2007-09-17

1 recommendation

xenophon

Member

Latency matters more after a few Mbps

That's good speed but the 100+ms latency is not all that great. A smartphone app only needs a few Mbps, after that, lower latency matters more.

SysOp
join:2001-04-18
Atlanta, GA

1 edit

SysOp

Member

+1

and that latency is on a rather unloaded network too. It's not going to get any faster once subscribers migrate to LTE.
majortom1029
join:2006-10-19
Medford, NY

majortom1029

Member

ugh

I wish they would hurry up with long island. they are going tower by tower from queens on east . at this rate it could be 2014 before I have lte at home.

gigahurtz
Premium Member
join:2001-10-20
USA

gigahurtz

Premium Member

Bring LTE to Palm Coast, FL!

I'm right inbetween Daytona Beach and St. Augustine, FL (both have LTE). Expand out just a little more for us AT&T!
xenophon
join:2007-09-17

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Re: Latency matters more after a few Mbps

Many Sprint/VZW LTE sites are getting 50-70ms even with some load. But yeah, 100ms+ for a new site is not all that great. Maybe it's just a matter of tuning.

jmn1207
Premium Member
join:2000-07-19
Sterling, VA

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It depends on the app, I suppose. With my SlingMedia player app, I can suffer through 100ms latency without issue, provided the download speed is steady at 1500+ kbps.

I'm also streaming 320 kbps music throughout most of the day, and the latency does not appear to be that critical to either MOG, Spotify, or Google Music apps.

Only voice and video call apps would significantly suffer that I am aware of, but are there any other apps that might rely on a very low latency? It's not like 150ms is terrible, just not perfect for online games or VoIP applications. Are these heavily used by most smartphone users outside of a WiFi range?

I did a few speed tests from various servers listed nearby. The results are a bit sporadic, so I'm not sure how telling these tests really might be.


Speed Test from Various Servers Nearby
xenophon
join:2007-09-17

xenophon

Member

That's interesting that ATT bounces around latency like that. I'm getting more consistent latency on Sprint...

»dl.dropbox.com/u/3812896 ··· tlte.png

buddahbless
join:2005-03-21
Premium

buddahbless

Member

Close, but no cigar...

Great there expanding there LTE footprint looks rather promising as well, however whats really the use of having 45/20 mbps on a smartphone ( this goes to Verizon as well) If Im capped, restricted with my tethering, and cant use my phone to its full potential without having to root it/ jailbreak it. Honestly showing off these high speed when our smartphones are still so limited in features is just for bragging rights.

Id rather they advertise the usage limits than there overall top speeds but who am I kidding that will never happen. Honestly whats the most data intensive app thats available? Netfix ? On average streaming a SD or HD movie to your smartphone uses around 1.5-2.5mbps. so currently you wont really use 45 for anything currently. The kicker is one SD movie stream will consume on average 500-600mb of data and one HD will use 1GB+ of data, so now your limited to only 2-4 movies before you get hit with overages ( assuming you have a 2GB plan). Most consumers have no idea of this simple logic.

Id rather they both advertise page 1 big and bold A full 4G LTE unlimited speeds package for a set price with a data cap and then on page 2 a LTE package with A speed cap (limited to 3G speed) but unlimited data and let the buyers choose which they want.

The braggers and "look what I can do" followers will choose the unlimited speed, allowing the smart and informed shopper to choose the unlimited data, we could care less if its slower just give us unlimited.

Eagles1221
join:2009-04-29
Vincentown, NJ

Eagles1221

Member

I have unlimited on my VZ plan. I get a whopping .12mbit on my 3G link and 10-15Mbit on LTE. So, really, unlimited 3G at crummy speeds isn't overly useful.

jmn1207
Premium Member
join:2000-07-19
Sterling, VA

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Re: Latency matters more after a few Mbps

I'm using Verizon, and the tests were from different servers within a 50 mile range that were available.

MineCoast
Premium Member
join:2004-10-06
Pensacola, FL

MineCoast

Premium Member

LTE in Pensacola, FL

Click for full size
Not listed, but we just got LTE as well.

Gilitar
join:2012-02-01
Mobile, AL

Gilitar

Member

LTE in Mobile, AL

AT&T LTE is live in Mobile, AL

buddahbless
join:2005-03-21
Premium

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Re: Close, but no cigar...

said by Eagles1221:

I have unlimited on my VZ plan. I get a whopping .12mbit on my 3G link and 10-15Mbit on LTE. So, really, unlimited 3G at crummy speeds isn't overly useful.

I feel your pain as Verizon and sprints 3G Technology was IMHO a mistake in the first place due to using EV-DO. ATT and TMO got it right with UMTS/HSPA where there 3G was and still is actually very usable. However When I quoted above, Note I tried to explain limited 3G speeds over LTE, not over the current 3G network your unfortuneatly stuck on, so in general you would be on LTE but just speed limited to 3-4 mbps (throttled) which it what they were all claiming was the theoretical speed limit of 3G. Im sure even you would be happy with that coming from that 0.12 mbit that your at now, while being able to retain your unlimited.

XANAVirus
Premium Member
join:2012-03-03
Lavalette, WV

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Re: Latency matters more after a few Mbps

+1

I'd be interested in seeing a traceroute done from the LTE network.
If it's anything like my HSPA+ AT&T connection, before you even get out onto the Internet you have to go through 12 AT&T router hops.

The LTE network's latency is barely lower than the HSPA+ network (which usually rides at 120-200ms).

JigglyWiggly
join:2009-07-12
Pleasanton, CA

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Re: LTE in Mobile, AL

No LTE in merced california still >:|
ak3883
join:2005-08-20
Marlton, NJ

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Re: LTE coverage in non-listed areas

Philly was lit up with LTE back around when the iPhone 5 came out. Look closer at the AT&T coverage map, Philly/South Jersey are indeed colored for LTE. I can confirm my iPhone 5 gets LTE there as well, and it's blazing fast.
xenophon
join:2007-09-17

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xenophon to XANAVirus

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Re: Latency matters more after a few Mbps

I just did Sprint LTE traceroute in Android app, with about 60ms latency.

As expected, the link from cellphone to tower has most of the latency, not between cellsite and destination. If the cellsite is also using microwave or something wireless, it may then add more latency. It took 10 hops to get to Google but most of the bottleneck in latency is mostly phone to cellsite.
en103
join:2011-05-02

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I'll go out on a limb and state that LTE and HPSA+ are riding the same backhaul for most of AT&T, which in that case, may be not enough.
en103

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That's about what I typically see as well. The site that I typically connect to is microwaved HPSA+ (no LTE by any carrier here).

not quite right
I'm not cool enough to be a Mac person
join:2001-06-23
Puyallup, WA

not quite right

Member

Tacoma

I guess my town is considered part of Tacoma because on tuesday I noticed the LTE pop-up on my at&t iPhone. It could have been sooner, but I'm usually on Wi-Fi when I'm at home. I did a few speed test when I first noticed and got consistanly between 35-45Mbps.
en103
join:2011-05-02

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Re: Latency matters more after a few Mbps

Probably a lot less users (in general) in any given mile on Sprint.
Many AT&T phones (Android /WP and iPhone 5) are HSPA+/LTE.

Sprints newer phones are both - question is - how many Sprint users are on LTE in your area, and what is the cell density like ? I'm sure that VZW has a high percentage of its data users on LTE.

Some of AT&T's markets (Like SoCal) have 6MHz x 2 for LTE, which isn't a whole lot, especially when they're using 20MHzx2 for HSPA+.
en103

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Re: LTE in Mobile, AL

I'm sure it'll come soon enough.
Merced isn't exactly a huge city like Minneapolis/St Paul or Denver.
Even 1/2 of Los Angeles doesn't have LTE (San Fernando Valley), and that's ~2 million people.
xenophon
join:2007-09-17

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Re: Latency matters more after a few Mbps

said by en103:

Sprints newer phones are both - question is - how many Sprint users are on LTE in your area, and what is the cell density like ? I'm sure that VZW has a high percentage of its data users on LTE.

That leads to a good point though. Given that Sprint LTE is on 1900 it means there is more density of sites so you are likely to be closer to a tower and have fewer users per tower, especially since Sprint has half users of ATT/VZW. ATT/VZW are doing LTE on 700Mhz so a tower may be further away, which impacts latency (and supposedly 700Mhz is susceptible to interference more than 1900). Downside to 1900 is distance so needs more sites but that means since sites are closer together, you are likely closer to a site so you're likely to get lower latency. So there may be more variance in latency on 700 LTE than 1900 LTE - can't speak for HSPA+ on 1900, maybe protocol slightly less efficient.
en103
join:2011-05-02

en103

Member

That is correct - until AT&T implements AWS spectrum for LTE - or recycles GSM/HPSA+ spectrum it will be short on capacity - especially in markets that it doesn't have 12x2 700MHz (like VZW does - eg. SoCal).
Sprint already has high density on 1900MHz - so it should perform well.
patt2k
join:2009-01-16

patt2k

Member

.

Click for full size
Verizon Fios Over WiFI
Click for full size
Verizon 4G
those pings look good on verizon -> 51 MS is 4G LTE other one is Fios wifi