Verizon: LTE Launch On Track

said by en102:

Not really.. FCC only 'discouraged' things like throttling specific applications/protocols (aka Sandvine traffic shaping).

Since wireless spectrum is a limited resource in general, unless more efficiencies are brought into play, tiered/metered billing is inevitable.

said by en102:

2. More like 3. Verizon Wireless (largest), Sprint (2nd largest) AT&T (3rd, but closing in on #2). T-Mobile has a long way to go. Carriers consume spectrum regardless of 3G or not.

said by sonicmerlin:

4G IS the extra efficiency. They've been using 3G all over Japan for almost a decade now without any problems either. It's only carriers in places like the US, Canada, and Australia who claim to have problems.

said by patcat88:

In Japan I'm sure there is only tower siting company, with a government franchise/monopoly, and then all the cellphone providers colocate on the tower, or rent capacity on the base station equipment. Also eminent domain/street furniture is much less of a problem I bet in Japan. In Japan the network maintenance company will just put a tower on any building without any protest from property owner. In the USA communities fight tooth and nail against towers on private and public property, property owners want blood money for rent for towers, then the communities complain how there is no coverage in their town and their are being discriminated and need stimulus funds. Also Japan has some cellphone standards (PHS and PDC) whose tower ranges are in 100s of feet, with tower density of municipal wifi network (street lamps), which take some of the load off the CDMA and HSDPA (no GSM ) networks in urban areas. PHS and PDC are also priced cheaper than CDMA/HSDPA.

said by sonicmerlin:

But does that fully account for the Japanese people's massive usage of 3G? Many Japanese use their 3G as their primary internet connection, downloading, torrenting, and whatever else you can think of on their wireless connections. While there are "recommended" usage limits, in reality nothing is enforced. The "explosion" in 3G usage in America pales in comparison to what already occurred in Japan years ago.

said by mobbo:

I've given up on WiMax. Clear's signal has a lot of problems going through walls, windows, etc. Unless you're going to use it outside at a coffee shop patio, park, or by the pool, its pretty useless based on my experiences so far. I'm interested to see if the spectrum LTE uses will be better at penetrating into buildings, energy-efficient windows, etc.

said by tiger72:

Verizon, ATT, and TMO will be launching quite a bit of LTE on the AWS band.

Chances are likely that if you're in a city (or anywhere that capacity may be an issue), you'll be getting your LTE on 1700.

said by Matt:

Verizon is launching it in the 700MHz band. Good info to know though, as 1700MHz should still penetrate better than the current 1900MHz. Is AT&T not using any of their new 850MHz spectrum for LTE?

So if we want the ability to take an LTE phone from Verizon to AT&T, it will still need two radios? No wonder everyone is saying LTE is going to cause a mess of global roaming because of all the frequencies in use.

said by OwlSaver:

My company provides me with a 3g connection over Verizon. It works great outdoors near a tower. But anywhere that I need to use it - the service is terrible. If LTE is faster and can penetrate walls, it will be great.

said by patcat88:

800 CDMA and 850 GSM are the exact same band......

LTE is an integral part of a new Verizon strategy to ditch aging copper, and as such the company hopes to have the entire network upgraded by the end of 2014.

said by mobbo:

Not only that, but how much latency will LTE have? If my ping times are greater than 50ms to a local gameserver, I would never consider LTE for a home internet replacement.

said by Romney2012:

Well in my area, the best that Verizon can deliver using DSL is 3000 kbps down and 768 kbps up. LTE could do better on speeds, but cable(Comcast) will still deliver better speeds at lower cost than LTE will deliver. I don't see how LTE will compete with cable for broadband to the home. Only in those few areas where cable doesn't exist will LTE be competitive to the home.

said by iansltx:

Sure there is; I use less than 5GB per month when using my mobile broadband like mobile broadband (checking stuff on the go). That said, caps will probably be higher.

said by sonicmerlin:

The annoying thing is that in Sweden tested speeds are in the 40 mbps range. In the US providers are just lazy.

said by Van:

I thought i remember reading here that most phones dont have the processing to run much faster speeds then what is given

said by sonicmerlin:

Well you heard wrong.