DS Forums

 
 

LTE Tested in London (Guardian Report)


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 16-04-2012, 19:34
wavejockglw
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Glasgow
Posts: 10,276

The article below provides an interesting account of one testers experience with the experimental LTE deployed in Central London presently.

Enjoy.....http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...?newsfeed=true

"Trefor Davies is chief technology officer of Timico, and one of the people who last year pushed the idea that the UK needed to begin shifting over to IPv6. He's also had the opportunity to try out O2's 4G system around London"
wavejockglw is offline   Reply With Quote
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
Old 16-04-2012, 19:40
Thine Wonk
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 14,577
The article below provides an interesting account of one testers experience with the experimental LTE deployed in Central London presently.

Enjoy.....http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...?newsfeed=true

"Trefor Davies is chief technology officer of Timico, and one of the people who last year pushed the idea that the UK needed to begin shifting over to IPv6. He's also had the opportunity to try out O2's 4G system around London"
Very good data speeds, but yesterday you said:


3.8Mbs will be more than most mobile users will need for all their apps and video streaming using YouTube etc.

Only a very minute number of speed testers will be bothered as most will simply use the service and have no idea about data rates.

Most customers are concerned with what works well rather than statistics.
The key will be the allowances.

Data allowances: the high-speed elephant in the room

The amount of data you can download in a very small amount of time is going to change the game. In the US, owners of the new 4G-enabled iPad have already discovered they can burn through a few gigabytes' monthly allowance in a couple of hours. (Note: link may require subscription.) In upgrading the dongle firmware, for example I used 50MB in around a minute. If you consider that until recently a typical "fair use" policy for an "unlimited" data package was 500MB in a month, then you can see that the model is going to have to change. Mobile operators are going to have to increase their backhaul capacity by some orders of magnitude.
Thine Wonk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-04-2012, 19:43
alanwarwic
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: the wild world web
Posts: 28,132
With 97Mbps shown possible, I wonder what the maximum cost per minute this is at the soon to be 'capped roaming rate' of 50p per MB?

Obviously a lot less than the £8 per MB that Orange used to charge abroad.
alanwarwic is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-04-2012, 20:19
wavejockglw
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Glasgow
Posts: 10,276
The caps and allowances will have to be reviewed when this type of technology goes mainstream. That said for mobile handsets 2-3 Mbs can deliver good streaming performance so the improved data rates may be an answer to deliver to more data to more customers at reduced cost.

It remains to be seen if this technology will compete directly with fixed line services, if it does then the allowances will need to be similar to what is offered by those.

Price will be the key factor as ever but I predict the cost to customers will fall rapidly because the mob ops will want a fast return on investment and it makes sense for them to move users to lower cost per MB delivery systems. That said many customers won't notice much difference in terms of their everyday usage so the same will probably happen as did with 3G, which could not generate much of a premium when it was launched as there was no significant advantage using it before smartphones became available.
wavejockglw is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-04-2012, 22:03
fmradiotuner1
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: TheEssexSunshineCoast Clacton
Posts: 15,222
If they make LTE affordable at say £20 to £30 a month with at least 300GB it would be worth dumping my Sky broadband and line or am I dreaming?
fmradiotuner1 is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 16-04-2012, 22:34
wavejockglw
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Glasgow
Posts: 10,276
If they make LTE affordable at say £20 to £30 a month with at least 300GB it would be worth dumping my Sky broadband and line or am I dreaming?
We shall have to wait and see what the performance is when it's rolled out and used but its possible in theory. However fixed line for now is the proven option.
wavejockglw is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-04-2012, 22:36
jabbamk1
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: London, UK
Posts: 8,759
You're dreaming. Although at the moment three and tmobile do technically have unlimited data plans which mean you could use over 300gb on their Hspa+ 42Mbps network.

Good speed test results but I doubt the average consumer will see over 60mbps Max on LTE. Don't get me wrong that's an awesome speed but the 97mbps is a bit misleading. With LTE comes increased capacity so we'll see data plans increase.
jabbamk1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-04-2012, 22:59
TheBigM
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: moon
Posts: 12,983
If they make LTE affordable at say £20 to £30 a month with at least 300GB it would be worth dumping my Sky broadband and line or am I dreaming?
You are dreaming
TheBigM is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-04-2012, 23:02
fmradiotuner1
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: TheEssexSunshineCoast Clacton
Posts: 15,222
Even if it were 30mb it would be faster than my line now.
Hopefully one day we can dump the land line.
fmradiotuner1 is online now   Reply With Quote
 
Reply




 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 11:10.