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pittpete1
join:2009-06-12

pittpete1

Member

Question for a person who hates using a smartphone to surf?

Why is it so important to have such high speeds on a phone/mobile device?
If you are in the car, you can't/don't stream movies.
If you are home shouldn't you use your own wifi to stream?
Really just curious

SmilingBob
join:2013-09-23
League City, TX

SmilingBob

Member

Yup, our thoughts exactly. Which is why we went with Pageplus and slow 3g. Saving $1200/year, using Verizon service (Pageplus is a Verizon MVNO) and notice zero speed difference using phone browsers, phone apps, phone netflix. etc. And 4g LTE on Verizon was so congested in the evenings it was often slower than 3g anyways.

aaronwt
Premium Member
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
Asus RT-AX89

aaronwt

Premium Member

said by SmilingBob:

Yup, our thoughts exactly. Which is why we went with Pageplus and slow 3g. Saving $1200/year, using Verizon service (Pageplus is a Verizon MVNO) and notice zero speed difference using phone browsers, phone apps, phone netflix. etc. And 4g LTE on Verizon was so congested in the evenings it was often slower than 3g anyways.

I don't have that issue here. Plus 3G speeds won't cut it when I'm trying to stream Pandora or Amazon MP3. It is just too slow. Fortunately though, I'm on 4G over 95% of the time in the DC area. Even when in sub levels of buildings without any cellular reinforcement. The 700Mhz spectrum is great for building penetration.

Now I don't get the 30Mbps speeds from the speed tests I used to get a few years ago with LTE. But I do still get several Mbps and higher from the speed tests which is enough for my needs.
78036364 (banned)
join:2014-05-06
USA

78036364 (banned)

Member

said by aaronwt:

I don't have that issue here. Plus 3G speeds won't cut it when I'm trying to stream Pandora or Amazon MP3. It is just too slow.

Now come on. 3G is 1.5 Mbps. Pandora even on the paid service maxes out at 192 kbps. You'd have to have a shitty 3G connection to not get 192 kbps. That's not much better than 2G.

Now I don't get the 30Mbps speeds from the speed tests I used to get a few years ago with LTE. But I do still get several Mbps and higher from the speed tests which is enough for my needs.

People do speed tests a lot then wonder why they go over their caps. A speed test will use 50 MB or more.
78036364

78036364 (banned) to pittpete1

Member

to pittpete1
said by pittpete1:

Why is it so important to have such high speeds on a phone/mobile device?
If you are in the car, you can't/don't stream movies.
If you are home shouldn't you use your own wifi to stream?
Really just curious

Some people live in rural areas where their other choices for internet are dial-up or satellite. So somehow their logic dictates it's Verizon responsibility to make up for the fact that cable and DSL decided to pass their area by. Kind of like expecting McDonald's to make you a Whopper because Burger King decided not to put a franchise in your town. Verizon is the evil one here for low caps. The cable and dsl people aren't evil for telling their area to go fuck itself. Not sure how that logic works.
itguy05
join:2005-06-17
Carlisle, PA

itguy05 to aaronwt

Member

to aaronwt
said by aaronwt:

Plus 3G speeds won't cut it when I'm trying to stream Pandora or Amazon MP3. It is just too slow.

Bull$hit. When I had my iPhone 4S on Verizon 3G I could stream Slacker, iTunes Radio, and even watch Netflix running on the 3G network. It was not "too slow" for that.

aaronwt
Premium Member
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
Asus RT-AX89

aaronwt to 78036364

Premium Member

to 78036364
said by 78036364:

said by aaronwt:

I don't have that issue here. Plus 3G speeds won't cut it when I'm trying to stream Pandora or Amazon MP3. It is just too slow.

Now come on. 3G is 1.5 Mbps. Pandora even on the paid service maxes out at 192 kbps. You'd have to have a shitty 3G connection to not get 192 kbps. That's not much better than 2G.

Now I don't get the 30Mbps speeds from the speed tests I used to get a few years ago with LTE. But I do still get several Mbps and higher from the speed tests which is enough for my needs.

People do speed tests a lot then wonder why they go over their caps. A speed test will use 50 MB or more.

The only time I've ever had an issue streaming Amazon and Pandora is the rare time I drop down to 3G. Whenever it's happened and I look at my phone and it's on 3G. As soon as there are no streaming issues, when I look at my phone I'm on 4G. This has happened every single time without fail. Fortunately it doesn't happen very much. But when it does it is very annoying.
aaronwt

aaronwt to itguy05

Premium Member

to itguy05
said by itguy05:

said by aaronwt:

Plus 3G speeds won't cut it when I'm trying to stream Pandora or Amazon MP3. It is just too slow.

Bull$hit. When I had my iPhone 4S on Verizon 3G I could stream Slacker, iTunes Radio, and even watch Netflix running on the 3G network. It was not "too slow" for that.

No idea what the reason is then. But this has occurred with multiple cell phones I've owned. Any time there was s streaming issue it was always on 3G. When on 4G there is never an issue with me streaming.
davidhoffman
Premium Member
join:2009-11-19
Warner Robins, GA

2 edits

davidhoffman to pittpete1

Premium Member

to pittpete1
It is possible to stream low resolution video at highway speeds, if the highway has enough of the needed coverage quality. From what I understand there are storm chasers that do this. They can stream low resolution in the up or down frequency to show storms and receive certain types of weather data.

Just recently helped a person install a wireless all in one printer-copier-fax-scanner. During the install she mentioned how much she had to pay for mobile data. It was discovered that she never learned to switch her cell phone to WiFi in order to use the cable internet capability she had at home. Her data bill should be reduced significantly now that she knows how to do that, if she remembers to do it.
David_K
join:2014-05-02

David_K to pittpete1

Member

to pittpete1
I'm in the sticks where there are no wired internet connections and 4G speeds blow satellite out of the water, never mind latency.

This doesn't only apply to me, I have several friends who live where there are physical connections but opt to tether their phone at home because they do heavy downloading at work or just don't need 300GB soft caps.

10GB/month is plenty of data providing you don't DL games or stream video.
davidhoffman
Premium Member
join:2009-11-19
Warner Robins, GA

davidhoffman

Premium Member

Not for those with 2 students in high school or college. A friend of mine has to closely monitor his college attending daughter's use of the internet. Between the wife's studies relating to her work/business and his daughter's school use he can just about squeak by with 20GB for $60/month. 60GB/month for $60 might make things bearable.

aaronwt
Premium Member
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
Asus RT-AX89

aaronwt to itguy05

Premium Member

to itguy05
said by itguy05:

said by aaronwt:

Plus 3G speeds won't cut it when I'm trying to stream Pandora or Amazon MP3. It is just too slow.

Bull$hit. When I had my iPhone 4S on Verizon 3G I could stream Slacker, iTunes Radio, and even watch Netflix running on the 3G network. It was not "too slow" for that.

I had this happen again on the way home from work today. Traffic was backed up on the highway. Suddenly Pandora was stopping and starting. I looked down and I was on 3G. It kept doing this for several minutes. Once I got off the highway and by another cell site where there were fewer cars it switched back to 4G and the streaming was fine. Normally in this area it's always on 4G. But I guess with all the extra car traffic, there were more people using the cellular network.