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Is LTE just a money making gimmick for cell phone carriers?

Majcric

Majcric

Golden Member
Opinions... what do you folks think? I just picked up an iphone 5s and the LTE speed is absolutely blazing often rivaling my internet speed at home. But wait.... be careful it will shoot you over your data in an instant (figuratively speaking) Long story short we have awesome speed on mobile phs but are very data starved. Cell ph carriers looking to get filthy rich off of suckers.
 
No, at least not on Verizon. Their 3G is painful even for simple web browsing. Better than nothing if you really need it, but LTE is far superior for doing anything.

I do think it's a shame the way things have progressed, but when people are willing to pay $50 for what, 2GB? What do you expect carriers to do? Time to rake in the dough.

Still have my unlimited though. Will never give it up until forced.
 
Of course it's a scam. Rather than spending parts of their billions and billions in profit to upgrade their capacity, they just cap you because for whatever reason, despite having 4 major carriers, they all have nearly identical prices and plans.
 
data limits are a total joke. thank gawd i have unlimited verizon. i use about 40gb a month, theres no way i could limit use to 2gb, 4gb,...it seems sort of ridiculous to have lte-a (?) with 50 Mb/s and at the same time have a 2 gb limit
 
Luckily for me I have WiFi both at work and home where I spend the majority of my time.
1gb/month is more than plenty for me.
 
No. T-Mobile LTE is faster than my home internet (Oceanic/Time-Warner Cable). T-Mobile's HSPA+ "4G" is a slower.

Having their unlimited data plan is amazing.
 
LTE is awesome. Even with "just" a 2 GB plan, I wouldn't be able to go back to only 3G. Too slow in the real world, esp. when it's congested.
 
I don't want blazing fast connection speeds just so I can use more GeeBees, I want my existing data usage to be done faster. When I bring up maps and search for a place it should be instant, when I launch a web search I should see results right away. This is where LTE makes a huge difference (except when you're on Sprint's terrible network).
 
LTE per se is not a gimmick. It's sort of miracle, really, if you've experienced it fully (and compared it to how it was). But yes, the system around it is setup to not exactly support the type of consumption mania that amazing speed brought on your psyche.

I am with Red Storm though. I'm actually fine with 100-200 MB/month, even. It's just that when I need my data, I want it NOW. LTE does that.
 
The data caps are terrible, but other than that its very useful. Be even better when they really start turning up voice over LTE.
 
Personally, I don't feel like people "need" LTE. Is it nice? Sure. But it's "necessary" only for a small percent of the populace.

When I had 3G my pages loaded just fine, and it was fast enough. The only thing which is definitely better on LTE is the apps downloading and stuff like that. But really, it's not like we're gonna die if our app will take longer to download. And either way, to take full advantage of LTE you need a big data plan and that's expensive. I get by with 200MB/month thanks to Android's awesome data limiting settings and warnings.

A big drawback to LTE is it's biggest strength. If your phone decides to download something in the background and you're not watching, you are going to reach your limit in no time! With 3G it would take longer...
 
I don't know how a cell connection that's as fast as my cable internet can be a gimmick. It's quite real and very useful.

I'm hoping some of the carriers start upping their data caps to compete with each other in the next few years. We're already seeing some price wars due to T-Mobile and pre-paid services. AT&Ts new family plans are a really good deal, and even the individual plans improved since they took out the built in subsidy cost (I'm paying almost $20 less per month now).
 
Yeah I agree OP, I go over my 3Gb limit pretty easily just streaming music on my 15 minute drive to work. LTE is pretty nice for general web browsing but the data limit really puts a damper on what LTE could be if you could actually use it whenever you wanted.
 
I absolutely do not need it. HSPA+ is more than fast enough for what I want to do on a phone.


In my area, HSPA+ is almost as fast for speeds. Latency I know LTE wins, but the difference isn't the world of difference everyone says, at least IMO.
 
LTE is awesome for two reasons

1) It it s more efficient so if your spectrum is crowded it works better, you get faster speeds with the same congestion.
2) It gives you faster speeds.

Personally I care about number 1 the most.
 
thebigbolgna said:
I absolutely do not need it. HSPA+ is more than fast enough for what I want to do on a phone.


In my area, HSPA+ is almost as fast for speeds. Latency I know LTE wins, but the difference isn't the world of difference everyone says, at least IMO.
Click to expand...

There are areas by me where I got 50 down on LTE, even though HSPA is pretty fast it doesn't come close to that. Also upload speeds seem to be an even bigger difference.
 
VashHT said:
There are areas by me where I got 50 down on LTE, even though HSPA is pretty fast it doesn't come close to that. Also upload speeds seem to be an even bigger difference.
Click to expand...

I get about 20 down on HSPA+ here, 25 ish with LTE.

Uploading I get 5-6 with HSPA+ and 9-10 with LTE.

Using Rogers in Canada.
 
jana519 said:
The gimmick is the "unlimited data" plans that aren't unlimited.
Click to expand...

Most things billed as unlimited have never been really so, it's based on a typical use.

Try staying at an all-you-can-eat place for 8 hours with 10 friends. 🙂

Most companies don't limit anyone to 2GB, you can pay to play.

I go through 20GB on 6 iphones. Only two are really heavy users, I almost always have access to wifi.
 
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