Tuesday Morning Links → 4Mbps Fast Enough?

If 4Mbps is fast enough, why don't they throttle their LTE offerings to 4Mbps? Forget LTE, even ATT's and TMO's HSPA+ in my area provides at least 10Mbps. Even when reception gets fringe, it still manages ~4Mbps. If we don't need any more than 4Mbps, why do they offer faster speeds or why don't they offer cheaper base plans @ 4Mbps and higher speeds as premium products?

also if its fast enough why am I hearing radio ads for FiOS bragging about it being symmetrical now(though they call it speed match). I mean who needs that base of I think its 25/25 if 4Mbps is fast enough.

I think with cellular systems, you get what you get based on distance only. It was not built into the specifications to have the ability to throttle. I think when the slow you down on cellular it really means they switch you from 4G to 2G.

Don't confuse the issue by citing what they do today and what they could have done if 4Mbps is truly all we need.

I do not think I am confusing anything.

With a radio based system, which cellular is, you have to build a system with much more capacity than the bare minimum in order to handle the inherent issue of lower data rates as distance increases. As long as that excess speed capability is available you can advertise it as a feature, but make sure you put in a disclaimer about the system being a best effort one subject to usage and environmental conditions.

It is similar to DSL. At one time a 768K/128K internet connection was considered adequate high speed. With a standard ADSL2+ system you had the ability for 24Mbps/3Mbps, which the phone company sold as a luxury item. It is similar to the way a railroad may have express trains and non-express trains with in the same system. The non-express train will get you to your destination the same as the express train, just at a slower rate.

Yes, you are confused or purposely trying to confuse what I said with explanations and comparisons that have no bearing on my statements. The signal rate at which the physical layer transfers information is not relevant to my statements. Whether or not they built throttling into the system is also not relevant.

BTW -- It's reported that VZ does have the ability to throttle LTE on a per tower, per customer, per period basis.

OK, I had not previously read about such capabilities being part of the Verizon LTE deployment.