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

jmn1207 to xenophon

Premium Member

to xenophon

Re: Latency matters more after a few Mbps

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

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

jmn1207

Premium Member

I'm using Verizon, and the tests were from different servers within a 50 mile range that were available.
en103
join:2011-05-02

en103 to xenophon

Member

to xenophon
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+.
xenophon
join:2007-09-17

xenophon

Member

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.