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josephf
Member
2013-Apr-15 10:44 am
LTE Speed Comparison to CompetitionIn the markets that they have LTE (disregarding non-LTE markets), between Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T, who has the best speeds and who has the worst speeds? How do they stack up to each other.
Presumably one carrier may be better in one market and worse in another city or vice versa. So any comparison is best noted which market is being discussed. Additionally, someone who has experiance with more than one carriers LTE service is best suited to share how they compare to each other. Someone who only utilized one carrier can only share how fast their carrier is but will be hard pressed to compare it to other carriers he hasn't used. | |
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Re: LTE Speed Comparison to CompetitionThis report from root metrics was from early March and stated AT&T's LTE is currently the fastest. | |
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josephf
Member
2013-Apr-15 10:54 am
Re: LTE Speed Comparison to CompetitionThank you for that report. It is quite useful. Though taking a quick glance through it, it appears to be aggregating a carriers average speed across their national network. (The markets where the carrier has an LTE network up and running.) It may also be useful to see a comparison within a market, New York City for example, as a carrier may be better or worse in individual markets for a variety of reasons such as network congestion and more or less towers. | |
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| MRCUR join:2007-03-09 Lancaster, PA |
to josephf
I can only speak for the Baltimore, MD market, which now has LTE available from all four major carriers - AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon.
In general, I've found AT&T to be by far the fastest with LTE. Their HSPA+ service is also very admirable, although T-Mobile with DC-HSPA+ (dual-carrier) is faster most of the time.
Sprint and T-Mobile's LTE average, for me, about 6-10Mbps. This is just "okay" to me, especially when compared to an average of about 20Mbps on AT&T with spikes to well over 50Mbps. Verizon's LTE is also disappointing to me, offering only about 10Mbps in most of my tests.
Verizon's slow LTE speeds in the Baltimore area don't seem to be the result of congestion. I have consistently received about the same speeds from the time they launched to now, where almost all of the smartphones they sell are LTE capable.
As far as bandwidth is concerned, both AT&T and Verizon deploy 10MHz on the uplink/downlink sides of LTE. I am not sure what Sprint does. T-Mobile unfortunately only allocated 5MHz on each side. | |
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Re: LTE Speed Comparison to Competitionsaid by MRCUR:Sprint and T-Mobile's LTE average, for me, about 6-10Mbps. This is just "okay" to me, especially when compared to an average of about 20Mbps on AT&T with spikes to well over 50Mbps. Verizon's LTE is also disappointing to me, offering only about 10Mbps in most of my tests.
Smartphone apps only need a few Mbps. Would you rather have 2-10Mbps unlimited or 10-30Mbps with a 2-5GB limit. I use 6-9GB/month so will take the former. | |
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en103
Member
2013-Apr-15 1:31 pm
Re: LTE Speed Comparison to CompetitionI'm glad I have my unlimited even if its on HPSA+ at 3-14Mbps. | |
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Sprint LTE in many markets not yet announcedSensorly is showing users reporting Sprint LTE in quite a few markets not yet announced. St. Louis just now showing up. No Denver or Phoenix yet. VZW obviously way ahead but Sprint not too far behind ATT. » sensorly.com/map/4G/US/U ··· 10sprint | |
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skeechanAi Otsukaholic Premium Member join:2012-01-26 AA169|170 |
skeechan
Premium Member
2013-Apr-15 11:29 am
Sprint LTE popped up in Irvine, CA (OC) a few weeks agoSeeing 10/7 from it but Irvine (near JWA) is the only place in SoCal I've come across Sprint's LTE so far. | |
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chlenEthically Challenged Premium Member join:2001-01-16 Saratoga, NY |
chlen
Premium Member
2013-Apr-15 11:37 am
NYC is not even close with the holes.I just got back from NYC today and LTE on Sprint was fine in southern Brooklyn, spotty as hell in Manhattan, block by block spotty (in midtown and upper west), it was nearly non existent in Queens, I lost signal to LTE right around Grand Central heading out to Bayside. Nothing in Forrest Hills or Flushing that was sustainable either. | |
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CarlNYC
Anon
2013-Apr-15 12:16 pm
Re: NYC is not even close with the holes.Sprint LTE is just going live in some pockets of the upper west side. LTE is live in the east side, and east Harlem. Bronx has LTE all over the place , but spotty. Queens only had it on Jamaica for months, but now you can get a signal in Astoria. Agree with Brooklyn, only the south part has it but its expanding. Now the problem with these clowns is LTE us on the 1900 MHz band in a 5x5 channel which will not penetrate buildings well and the speeds will just be average. | |
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Re: NYC is not even close with the holes.NYC isn't announced yet. Will get interesting when Sprint starts 800Mhz LTE later this year. | |
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| | | bobjohnson Premium Member join:2007-02-03 Spartanburg, SC |
Re: NYC is not even close with the holes.said by xenophon:NYC isn't announced yet. Will get interesting when Sprint starts 800Mhz LTE later this year. Yeah, they definitely need to do something because even though we've been officially launched in areas here its very spotty and less than useful in some cases. But when it does work we're getting like 15/3, so a lower frequency would be great. | |
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| | criggs join:2000-07-14 New York, NY |
to CarlNYC
said by CarlNYC :Sprint LTE is live in the east side Can you be more specific? As in, LTE is live on the east side from 10th street to 90th street, something like that. Thanks! For what it's worth, I'm in the East 50s. | |
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ocjosh join:2013-03-19 Anaheim, CA ·T-Mobile ·Verizon Wireless
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ocjosh
Member
2013-Apr-15 12:16 pm
Sprint's soft launch is so confusingSprint's LTE coverage map in LA market is so wrong. Sprint puts a lot of coverage on the website but actually less LTE built done yet. There is even a black hole for EVDO on freaking 105 near bellflower exit. Also, it seems their LTE is way weaker than WiMax coverage indoors though WiMax is known for ultra weak penetration. If you test LTE in Lakewood mall parking lot (open air), from Costco gas station to home depot, not far enough to macy's or chase, LTE no more. It's so weak to just like WiFi style coverage. I test on several places, all the same. Long beach MTA station, LAX runway, Paramount city center, Santa Fe Spring city center, whittier area,... they are all WiFi style, less than one block. But their map is all over-ly wrong. I also found that some day I might get it at some location, LTE would be gone for weeks but never be back by far. | |
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Re: Sprint's soft launch is so confusingI agree it's a problem. Sprint is posting the final target coverage, not the current state during rollout. It will just frustrate users. | |
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$$how about a launch of lower prices? | |
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| openbox9 Premium Member join:2004-01-26 71144 |
openbox9
Premium Member
2013-Apr-15 10:51 pm
Re: $$Isn't going to happen. Infrastructure builds cost money. People to run and service the networks have costs that are rising quickly. Consumers' prices aren't going to fall. | |
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Some of Oregon lighting up.Noticing some parts of Portland, Beaverton, and Hillsboro now have 4g coverage. | |
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carlnyc
Anon
2013-Apr-15 7:38 pm
Re: Some of Oregon lighting up.If they announce NYC and LA with only 50%( S4gru.com) of LTE sites then they will have another PR nightmare. Verizon and Att were able to announce LTe live with only 50% due to the fact their network runs in the 700 MHz which penetrate walls and travel miles away. | |
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| | ocjosh join:2013-03-19 Anaheim, CA ·T-Mobile ·Verizon Wireless
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ocjosh
Member
2013-Apr-16 1:02 pm
Re: Some of Oregon lighting up.My personal experience with WiMax 2500 MHz and LTE 1900 MHz, LTE supposedly locate at better band than WiMax. But the truth is WiMax perform and penetrate a lot better than LTE for the same tower to us in the building for my living area in Los Angeles market. I am 0.29 mile away from the LTE Network Vision tower that I am talking about, flat ground, metro/industrial park (no insulation walls and thin roofing). The results are away from the Sprint Network Vision announcement back then. Even it's LTE tower, I don't see the voice coverage enhancement to 800 MHz at LA market because I still have roaming going on at some urban area where the tower is less than a mile away. I just can't understand the open air areas for LTE on Sprint (not penetration issue), why the coverage is so small, even for a tower. Those examples I gave is like Metro line stations, city halls, mall parking lots. It's like amplified wifi coverage to me on the Sprint LA LTE network. | |
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HarleyYacLee Premium Member join:2001-10-13 Allendale, NJ 2 edits |
Edgewater NJHi, I work in Fort Lee across from Manhatten and I am getting LTE on both sides 3 meg up 1 down. Edgewater was 5 down 2 up and flucuated to @ 8 down on occaision. | |
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