sufficient mobile broadband speed?

[lehtv]

Never wandered to this part of the forum before... hello eveyrone

I'm new to smartphones and mobile broadband. I mean, I understand what mbps is and so on, but I'm not sure if I can trust numbers, I want some input from actual, knowledgeable smartphone users.

I can get one of the following contracts (all of these also include enough talk/text but ignore that):

1. 100 mbps (LTE 4G) for 28 € per month
2. 50 mpbs (LTE 4G) for 25 € per month
3. 21 mpbs (LTE 4G) for 21 € per month
4. 7 mbps for 17 € per month

What can each of these not do? What would be enough for smooth sailing in youtube, for instance? What about Skype?

 

[olds]

What's €?

 

[jiffylube1024]

It's Euros. Come on!

-------

lehtv -- what kind of usage do you get for those prices? Do they all give you the same amount of data per month? Is it unlimited or a fixed amount?

I'd go for either the 50 or 100 mbps LTE plan. 21mbps may just be HSPA+ (though it does say LTE).

 

[masteryoda34]

Also note, the speeds are probably the max theoretical bandwidth. In real use, distance from the tower and attenuation due to buildings, etc will lower the actual throughput.

 

[lehtv]

Yes, that's a good point. If we assume I'm getting half the maximum bandwidth, which of the above options would be sufficient to watch youtube 720p video without hiccups? Also, would there be significant differences in website loading speed between 21mbps and 50mbps, for example?

 

[ImDonly1]

On a smartphone, doing whatever a smartphone can do... 7Mbps is enough. I would go with either the 7 or the 21Mbps package. The 21 uses LTE, the 7 seems is just HSPA+ 3G. If the 7 Mbps package is HSPA+ only, then latency might be higher than the 21Mbps LTE package, so video calls Skype... might be slightly worse? Otherwise there isn't much more one can do than the other.

I'd probably go for the 21 since it is only $5 more, but the 7 is fine too.
50 and 100 is useless unless you are tethering the phone to your laptop and downloading huge files (no not PDF or documents).

 

[bearxor]

Never wandered to this part of the forum before... hello eveyrone

I'm new to smartphones and mobile broadband. I mean, I understand what mbps is and so on, but I'm not sure if I can trust numbers, I want some input from actual, knowledgeable smartphone users.

I can get one of the following contracts (all of these also include enough talk/text but ignore that):

1. 100 mbps (LTE 4G) for 28 € per month
2. 50 mpbs (LTE 4G) for 25 € per month
3. 21 mpbs (LTE 4G) for 21 € per month
4. 7 mbps for 17 € per month

What can each of these not do? What would be enough for smooth sailing in youtube, for instance? What about Skype?

I wouldn't have any issues with the 7Mbps plan. I get between 4-6 on HSPA+ now normally and it's more than sufficient for most use. I stream videos from my home server, watch YouTube, use navigation, stream HBOGo and Netflix. Perfectly happy with it at that speeds.

The only consideration I would give is if the HSPA network in your area is overloaded or not. That may be a consideration for going with the 21Mbps LTE plan.

 

[lehtv]

Yeah the 21mbps plan is just 4€ more for triple the bandwidth and I get to use newer tech. On the other hand, I can try out the 7 mbps plan and if it's too slow I can upgrade it for a few € payment. Thanks guys, I think I'll try 7 mbps first

 

[olds]

It's Euros. Come on!

Is that like a Deutsche Mark?

I copied and pasted the symbol into Google and had zero hits.

Anyway, my point was going to be that they are pretty close in price. It that was dollars, it's mot much difference.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Is that like a Deutsche Mark?

I copied and pasted the symbol into Google and had zero hits.

Anyway, my point was going to be that they are pretty close in price. It that was dollars, it's mot much difference.

Type the word Euro into Google. It's the first hit. An E with two lines through it. The official currency of much of Western Europe (except great Britain). Where have you been the last 18 years?

1 Euro = $1.31 USD

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Is that like a Deutsche Mark?

I copied and pasted the symbol into Google and had zero hits.

Anyway, my point was going to be that they are pretty close in price. It that was dollars, it's mot much difference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro

The euro (sign: €; code: EUR) is the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union and is the official currency of the eurozone, which consists of 17 of the 28 member states of the European Union: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.[3][4] The currency is also used in a further five European countries and consequently used daily by some 332 million Europeans.[5] Additionally, more than 175 million people worldwide—including 150 million people in Africa—use currencies pegged to the euro.

 

[JAG87]

Never wandered to this part of the forum before... hello eveyrone

I'm new to smartphones and mobile broadband. I mean, I understand what mbps is and so on, but I'm not sure if I can trust numbers, I want some input from actual, knowledgeable smartphone users.

I can get one of the following contracts (all of these also include enough talk/text but ignore that):

1. 100 mbps (LTE 4G) for 28 € per month
2. 50 mpbs (LTE 4G) for 25 € per month
3. 21 mpbs (LTE 4G) for 21 € per month
4. 7 mbps for 17 € per month

What can each of these not do? What would be enough for smooth sailing in youtube, for instance? What about Skype?

I'm going to answer your question with another question. Is there a bandwidth cap on any of these? Because the answer is simple. If there is, get the 21 mbps LTE, if there isn't, get the 100 mbps LTE.

You'll find uses for 100 mbps LTE with no cap. Trust me. Maybe not immediately, but eventually you'll find something to do with it

 

[olds]

... Where have you been the last 18 years?...

Not giving a shit about Europe. I've already baby sit them once.

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/oldsmoboat/euroisfake.png

Enough with the thread crapping, Olds
-ViRGE

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I'd take the basic LTE plan. I don't really get how you can use so much data on your mobile phone unless you're actually tethering. But even then if I could tether my unlimited mobile at 25 mbps versus my home internet of 20mbps, I'd take my home internet. I can open my laptop, my tablet, my desktop, etc and not worry about turning on tethering. So unless you're a serious heavy bandwidth user, do you REALLY need 100mbps?

 

[lehtv]

I'm going to answer your question with another question. Is there a bandwidth cap on any of these? Because the answer is simple. If there is, get the 21 mbps LTE, if there isn't, get the 100 mbps LTE.

You'll find uses for 100 mbps LTE with no cap. Trust me. Maybe not immediately, but eventually you'll find something to do with it

What kind of uses do you imagine I could need it for? If I find that bandwidth is lacking, I can always upgrade it, so I don't think there's an incentive for me to pay for a what-if

What does 21mbps do that 7mpbs doesn't?

@ DLeRium, I think I won't be sharing the broadband to other devices

 

[ChronoReverse]

LTE does provide significantly better response rate from the data service over HSPA. Tends to be less congested too.

I'd probably go for the 21mbps LTE. The extra speed grades isn't that useful to me but lower latency just makes for less annoyances.

 

[JAG87]

What kind of uses do you imagine I could need it for? If I find that bandwidth is lacking, I can always upgrade it, so I don't think there's an incentive for me to pay for a what-if

What does 21mbps do that 7mpbs doesn't?

@ DLeRium, I think I won't be sharing the broadband to other devices

Like I said, if it's uncapped there are uses for it. For example, upload all your photos and videos to cloud storage and free up memory on your phone. For playback, just stream high bit-rate videos (i.e. iPhone records at 1080p 17mbps) from cloud storage. I pay for a 100GB Skydrive subscription and this is just one of the things I could do with an uncapped 100mbps LTE connection, which I now can do only on wifi (because I don't want to burn through 6GB of cellular data)

Bare in mind that a 21mbps LTE connection will NOT stream that without buffering. The 50mbps might in ideal conditions, and the 100 mbps will for sure.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

What kind of uses do you imagine I could need it for? If I find that bandwidth is lacking, I can always upgrade it, so I don't think there's an incentive for me to pay for a what-if

What does 21mbps do that 7mpbs doesn't?

@ DLeRium, I think I won't be sharing the broadband to other devices

Torrent 3 times faster

 

[lopri]

@bearxor: what's the benefit of streaming from home server? If you don't mind sharing. Security I can imagine, are there other benefits?

 

[lehtv]

Hmm... The internet will mostly be used for browsing websites, music stream playback and some Youtube. But if latency and is better with 21mbps, it would affect even light websites so it would be useful... I'm 50/50 right now

 

[lehtv]

Torrent 3 times faster

 

[Chapbass]

LTE does provide significantly better response rate from the data service over HSPA. Tends to be less congested too.

I'd probably go for the 21mbps LTE. The extra speed grades isn't that useful to me but lower latency just makes for less annoyances.

This. Even just browsing the web, my note2 feels so much slower when im stuck in HSPA and not on LTE, and I feel its because of latency. Seriously, go LTE and get on the newer tech.