verizon lte arrives dec 5?

[webdave]

and latency is what exactly--how fast the network responds to a request made by a device?

Yes for example if I ping google.com from my desktop I average 25-45ms. On ATT 3G it is around 200-250. On ATT Edge I was getting 500ms or so.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

in my city there is a palpable tingle in the air as the the 4g network is warming up...

 

[OBLAMA2009]

Yes for example if I ping google.com from my desktop I average 25-45ms. On ATT 3G it is around 200-250. On ATT Edge I was getting 500ms or so.

and that is noticeable by a user? what causes that? why do you not have that problem with wifi?

 

[webdave]

and that is noticeable by a user? what causes that? why do you not have that problem with wifi?

Sure it is. It is hard to play online games like first person shooters with current 3G let alone EDGE or 1xRTT. I also notice a major difference when I VPN into work from my home broadband connection vs. a cellular data card.

 

[Bateluer]

in my city there is a palpable tingle in the air as the the 4g network is warming up...

LTE kills trees!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Edit - And bees.

 

[Deeko]

and that is noticeable by a user? what causes that? why do you not have that problem with wifi?

Absolutely. 500ms is half a second. If it takes you half a second just to hear from the server - before any data is even transfered - think about how much that slows something down that has to make multiple trips to the server. It adds up very quickly, and is very noticable.

Wifi is a faster, shorter range connection that has less latancy than slow cellular data connections.

 

[pm]

Yes for example if I ping google.com from my desktop I average 25-45ms. On ATT 3G it is around 200-250. On ATT Edge I was getting 500ms or so.

The LTE specification quotes latencies of as low as 5ms, but that is under optimal conditions and doesn't count any of the backend routing so this is one of those laboratory-like measurements. The news articles that I've read say that the real-world latency of first-gen LTE is about half what it was on 3G. So expect about 75-125ms.

 

[ponyo]

The LTE specification quotes latencies of as low as 5ms, but that is under optimal conditions and doesn't count any of the backend routing so this is one of those laboratory-like measurements. The news articles that I've read say that the real-world latency of first-gen LTE is about half what it was on 3G. So expect about 75-125ms.

Which is about what I get with T-mobile HSPA+. Low latency is why T-mobile "4g" is superior to Sprint 4g Wimax.

I really hope $50 5gig data plan doesn't carry over to smartphones. That's way too rich for me and probably majority of americans.

 

[MrX8503]

yes reliablility will be a major issue, esp once millions of people are on the lte network. i cant think of the last time my dsl was down but verizon 3g is still really flaky. they have frequent outages for hours at a time and even in daily use there will be periods of 5 minutes or more where it just doesnt work

Well, a home connection has the benefits of reliability, speed, and a much much higher data cap.

Conversely, I'm more concerned with having fast data on the go. When I'm at home, I don't have to go far to get to my desktop or laptop. When I am out and about, my cell phone becomes my sole interface to the internet - and a fast connection to said internet makes a big difference. Web browsing on a faster connection is much better.

Not to mention the latest trend in mobile is video chat. Have you used 3G video chat on the Evo? I tried it on the Epic and it was terrible. That's going to be a big benefit of widespread 4G speeds.

I think the video chat sucks mainly due to the crappy app because I believe even on wifi it sucks. You should check out Tango, its cross platform and its almost as good if not better than FaceTime. From what I can tell Tango has a higher data rate than other video chat apps except for maybe FaceTime.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Which is about what I get with T-mobile HSPA+. Low latency is why T-mobile "4g" is superior to Sprint 4g Wimax.

I really hope $50 5gig data plan doesn't carry over to smartphones. That's way too rich for me and probably majority of americans.

I would place my money on it being same price for phones if I were to bet. VZW has always had their data plans where it doesn't matter what device you use it for, it's the same price. For example, I could be on a $30/mo unlimited plan and wouldn't matter if that was for a cell phone, card, or MiFi type hotspot. All 3 are the same price per month.

 

[YoungGun21]

I would place my money on it being same price for phones if I were to bet. VZW has always had their data plans where it doesn't matter what device you use it for, it's the same price. For example, I could be on a $30/mo unlimited plan and wouldn't matter if that was for a cell phone, card, or MiFi type hotspot. All 3 are the same price per month.

There have been rumors that there will be different tiered plans for the LTE data services and the 3g will stay the same as it is now. However, I don't see them going to $50/5GB.

 

[pm]

Which is about what I get with T-mobile HSPA+. Low latency is why T-mobile "4g" is superior to Sprint 4g Wimax.

FWIW, this isn't WiMax, this is LTE.

As far as latency, I left it out of my post, but latency has basically two parts- the latency of the wireless technology and then the latency of the back-end connection once you get to the tower.

I remember travelling in Poland two years, I had a latency of about 160ms using EDGE - the same EDGE technology that gave me about 400ms of latency on T-Mobile in the US. Latency is strongly dependent on the carriers back-end implementation and routing.

I would most definitely not take rumors about LTE latency on a prototype non-production system as a basis conclude that production HSPA+ on T-Mobile is superior to either WiMax or LTE. On paper, this is totally not the case and companies aren't totally stupid. HSPA+ is a lot cheaper to roll out than LTE or WiMax, and companies would stick with HSPA+ if it was really superior.

 

[Bateluer]

http://www.droid-life.com/2010/12/03/5gb-verizon-4g-lte-data-limit-crushed-in-32-minutes/

Ouch. Early Adopter Tax?