[FlyingSpacer]

Hey. Just for anyone that's interested, I was in Leeds yesterday and had a chance to try my new 4GEE service on my iPhone 5. Got between 15mbps-20 down and 20 up. I'm not here to debate the DC-HSPDA service equivalent, just letting everyone know what you can expect. FWIW, with LTE off, I was getting 4mbps on 3G in exactly the same spot.

[mogzyboy]

Are their speeds capped? Surely with a down speed of 15Mbps and an up speed of 20Mpbs they must me?

Isn't download speed almost always faster than upload speed?

[jabbamk1]

Flying spacer says between 15-20mbps,

I don't think they're capped seeing as we've seen reporters who've had better speeds.
The only thing i would say is that it's not exactly the superfast speeds we all thought it would be.

Still at least it's 10mbps+ nearly all the time and not just at the dead of night or during random times in the day or in just one area like it is on 3G.

[legends wear 7]

EE have been quoted by mobile press saying they will cap speeds at between 12-14mb

[Thine Wonk]

Originally Posted by legends wear 7

EE have been quoted by mobile press saying they will cap speeds at between 12-14mb

Can you link us to this quote you refer to so we can see what weight we'd give to it depending on the reputation of the site, what they say their source is, and the exact wording etc.

[jabbamk1]

Did you not read the other posts mate. People have been getting above 20mbps which means its not capped at 12mbps. I know EE T-Mobile have a Rep to cap but so dlfar therebia no evidence to suggest a cap

[wavejockglw]

Who cares about whether it's 5, 10 20 or 40Mbps?

Unless it's replacing fixed line broadband it hardly matters.

As previously stated and confirmed 3Mbps is good enough for YouTube or BBC iPlayer HD streaming. Of course more speed means more people can use the services but on a handset it's generally academic for browsing and using it for Facebook and the sort of apps that most folks actually bother with. The current usage pattern of most smartphone owners simply does not require the speeds provided by LTE or DC-HSPA+ for that matter. It will take some years for usage to change to make data speeds above 6-10Mbps a critical buying issue for the average consumer.

That is why EE are going to find selling 4G a hard task, simply because most customers are not interested in specs and would have great difficulty noticing any difference browsing with a phone connected to 3G or 4G. There may come a time when speed will matter more but it has not arrived yet and EE have made a poor job justifying it to anyone.

[Thine Wonk]

Originally Posted by wavejockglw

Who cares about whether it's 5, 10 20 or 40Mbps?

Unless it's replacing fixed line broadband it hardly matters.

As previously stated and confirmed 3Mbps is good enough for YouTube or BBC iPlayer HD streaming. Of course more speed means more people can use the services but on a handset it's generally academic for browsing and using it for Facebook and the sort of apps that most folks bother with.

That is why EE are going to find selling 4G a hard task, simply because most customers are not interested in specs and would have great difficulty noticing any difference browsing with a phone connected to 3G or 4G. There may come a time when speed will matter more but it has not arrived yet and EE have made a poor job justifying it to anyone.

Simple speed, as i've explained before and you've chosen to ignore.

A 20 meg app downloads in a few seconds rather than minutes
Titanium backup backs up quicker
Streams start playing faster
Downloads are faster
Pictures and videos you create on the device go up to dropbox quicker

Everything happens much quicker and the device is more snappy and fun to use, simple. What do people have extra cores or more RAM, same reason, only in this case it speeds up access and rich content on the device and makes it faster and better to use.

[Batch]

Originally Posted by wavejockglw

Who cares about whether it's 5, 10 20 or 40Mbps?

Unless it's replacing fixed line broadband it hardly matters.

At a guess the people who are paying a premium price for a premium product.

[daleski75]

Originally Posted by Thine Wonk

Simple speed, as i've explained before and you've chosen to ignore.

A 20 meg app downloads in a few seconds rather than minutes
Titanium backup backs up quicker
Streams start playing faster
Downloads are faster
Pictures and videos you create on the device go up to dropbox quicker

Everything happens much quicker and the device is more snappy and fun to use, simple. What do people have extra cores or more RAM, same reason, only in this case it speeds up access and rich content on the device and makes it faster and better to use.

Totally agree with everything you have wrote it will give a much better user experience overall but the downside is because of the new found speed and slickness you'll be tempted to do more which will hammer your data allowances.

I for one when 4G rolls out in my area will find it very hard to keep using the phone the same way as 3G and will probably treat it exactly as it should be an external broadband connection so I can catch up on tv on my lunch break, download apps, and watch higher quality video's without buffering.

I don't tether or want unlimited browsing just want to use 4G to get the job done faster and to be able to do more than what a 3G connection gives.

[legends wear 7]

Originally Posted by Thine Wonk

Can you link us to this quote you refer to so we can see what weight we'd give to it depending on the reputation of the site, what they say their source is, and the exact wording etc.

Was a story in mobile today direct quote from EE CEO

[wavejockglw]

Originally Posted by daleski75

I for one when 4G rolls out in my area will find it very hard to keep using the phone the same way as 3G and will probably treat it exactly as I should be an external broadband connection so I can catch up on tv on my lunch break, download apps, and watch higher quality video's without buffering.

Loads of folks already do all of those things with no need for Mobile operators...... they use WiFi as there are lots of businesses with it installed and BT Broadband customers have access to the FON network which has thousands of hotspots available. There is a lot can be done with WiFi which is faster than most 3G and 4G services and lots of folks use it for free! WiFi has a lot going for it and it's worth scanning around to see if a hotspot is available for free usage.

O2 have a National network of WiFi hotspots in popular places like Costa Coffee, McDonalds, Debenhams, Toni & Guy, Tobys and across Central London including popular outdoor locations. Best of all its totally free to everyone whether they are O2 customers or not. Just register and use it free where its available. More info and registration here: http://www.o2wifi.com/

[The Lord Lucan]

Originally Posted by legends wear 7

EE have been quoted by mobile press saying they will cap speeds at between 12-14mb

Total rubbish, they said users can expect to see these speeds in the real world tests. That 3G is around 2-4mbps usually. Also correct if not in an DC area with EE or 3 as DC coverage isn't huge.

[daleski75]

Originally Posted by wavejockglw

Who cares about whether it's 5, 10 20 or 40Mbps?

Unless it's replacing fixed line broadband it hardly matters.

As previously stated and confirmed 3Mbps is good enough for YouTube or BBC iPlayer HD streaming. Of course more speed means more people can use the services but on a handset it's generally academic for browsing and using it for Facebook and the sort of apps that most folks actually bother with. The current usage pattern of most smartphone owners simply does not require the speeds provided by LTE or DC-HSPA+ for that matter. It will take some years for usage to change to make data speeds above 6-10Mbps a critical buying issue for the average consumer.

That is why EE are going to find selling 4G a hard task, simply because most customers are not interested in specs and would have great difficulty noticing any difference browsing with a phone connected to 3G or 4G. There may come a time when speed will matter more but it has not arrived yet and EE have made a poor job justifying it to anyone.

It's called progress

If everyone took your viewpoint then why do we need 40/60/70/100mbit broadband just so we can get to the facebook page faster?

It's not just the speed which matters it's the ping times which are on par with a broadband connection which means apps start to download faster, video's start faster, web pages load way faster which adds to the overall experience.

3G at 3mb meets most peoples needs yes I somewhat agree with that but show them a much faster connection where they can be far more productive and I bet very few people if any would want to go back to 3G at all.

[daleski75]

Originally Posted by wavejockglw

Loads of folks already do all of those things with no need for Mobile operators...... they use WiFi as there are lots of businesses with it installed and BT Broadband customers have access to the FON network which has thousands of hotspots available. There is a lot can be done with WiFi which is faster than most 3G and 4G services and lots of folks use it for free! WiFi has a lot going for it and it's worth scanning around to see if a hotspot is available for free usage.

Nearly all wifi hotspots I have tried are slower than 3G, played around with a HTC 8X in an o2 store in my home town on their wifi and got fed up waiting for a webpage to load and walked out the store.

Tried hotspots in nero's, costa, macdonalds, star bucks to name but a few and they all share one thing in common... slow!!

[The Lord Lucan]

Originally Posted by daleski75

Nearly all wifi hotspots I have tried are slower than 3G, played around with a HTC 8X in an o2 store in my home town on their wifi and got fed up waiting for a webpage to load and walked out the store.

Tried hotspots in nero's, costa, macdonalds, star bucks to name but a few and they all share one thing in common... slow!!

Sky's free wifi always seems to be around 8mb or higher..

BT Openzone has settings that allow many users to connect but the speeds are affected by it, in fact i'm sure they actually cap speeds to each user also. O2 seem to be the same. Problem with Sky is sometimes you cannot get on to the wifi as there is too many on it..

[Thine Wonk]

Originally Posted by daleski75

Nearly all wifi hotspots I have tried are slower than 3G, played around with a HTC 8X in an o2 store in my home town on their wifi and got fed up waiting for a webpage to load and walked out the store.

Tried hotspots in nero's, costa, macdonalds, star bucks to name but a few and they all share one thing in common... slow!!

Yeah public wifi is normally quite bad due to a number of reasons, congestion in wifi channels, range and the connection at the place itself, plus the whole getting out to the internet via the providers network. Not to mention the messing about signing in, the blocked content because it might be deemed adult and the ports that are usually blocked blocking some services from working. It's typically worse than a good 3G connection.

[daleski75]

Originally Posted by Thine Wonk

Yeah public wifi is normally quite bad due to a number of reasons, congestion in wifi channels, range and the connection at the place itself, plus the whole getting out to the internet via the providers network. Not to mention the messing about signing in, the blocked content because it might be deemed adult and the ports that are usually blocked blocking some services from working. It's typically worse than a good 3G connection.

Normally I have given up by the time I get signed in and waiting for a page to load so normally just hop back onto 3G.

@Wave wifi does have a place in public hotspots and at airports where it's a very handy way of killing them long 2 to 3 hour waiting times for security checks etc.

But wifi hotspots in general are slower, more tedious and less reliable than a 3G connection.

[daleski75]

Originally Posted by legends wear 7

EE have been quoted by mobile press saying they will cap speeds at between 12-14mb

That was debunked and if that was the case how come independent sites such as coolsmartphone got 20mb plus from 1 bar

[Thine Wonk]

Originally Posted by daleski75

Normally I have given up by the time I get signed in and waiting for a page to load so normally just hop back onto 3G.

@Wave wifi does have a place in public hotspots and at airports where it's a very handy way of killing them long 2 to 3 hour waiting times for security checks etc.

But wifi hotspots in general are slower, more tedious and less reliable than a 3G connection.

O2 deployed widespread free wifi in high traffic areas in central London as a way to relieve the load on the O2 network in capacity not-spots.

Not for me thanks, I'd rather just have a decent solid 3G connection from the provider I'm paying to provide 3G from.

"It is smart to be using this Wi-Fi as an offload mechanism," argues Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin. "If you can steer one customer over to Wi-Fi, you are taking traffic off your network and liberating someone else to use this newly opened capacity.

http://www.itproportal.com/2012/07/2...#ixzz2BHSUaDOA

[DevonBloke]

Originally Posted by daleski75

That was debunked and if that was the case how come independent sites such as coolsmartphone got 20mb plus from 1 bar

Yeah, this is where LTE is going to be really good.
You're indoors, you have no reliable 2100Mhz 3G signal but a good 1-2 bar 1800Mhz 2G signal. I get this all the time in remote rural houses.
2G will give you about 50Kbps if you're lucky. LTE from the same cell (as long as its not overloaded) should give you the same 1-2 bar signal but this time anything up to 30 Meg!
Check this out http://www.coolsmartphone.com/2012/1...he-real-world/
Is this the test you were reffering to?

[DevonBloke]

Actually looking at that coolsmartphone video again it does Bear out what I've been saying.
He's getting consistent 20Meg tests on LTE with 1 bar but notice when he first goes to do the 3G test.
Assuming this is all from the same transmitter you can see that the 1800Mhz LTE is consistent but the 3G doesn't work then drops back to 2G. 1 bar 2G the same as the LTE!!
No one has been mentioning the better coverage.
Where you can currently make a call but have no 3G, you will have a 20 Meg LTE signal.
This is why I'm upgrading. Not necessarily the speed, although it helps
I'm amazed that EE aren't making more of is.

[Helbore]

Originally Posted by wavejockglw

Who cares about whether it's 5, 10 20 or 40Mbps?

Unless it's replacing fixed line broadband it hardly matters.

As previously stated and confirmed 3Mbps is good enough for YouTube or BBC iPlayer HD streaming. Of course more speed means more people can use the services but on a handset it's generally academic for browsing and using it for Facebook and the sort of apps that most folks actually bother with. The current usage pattern of most smartphone owners simply does not require the speeds provided by LTE or DC-HSPA+ for that matter. It will take some years for usage to change to make data speeds above 6-10Mbps a critical buying issue for the average consumer.

That is why EE are going to find selling 4G a hard task, simply because most customers are not interested in specs and would have great difficulty noticing any difference browsing with a phone connected to 3G or 4G. There may come a time when speed will matter more but it has not arrived yet and EE have made a poor job justifying it to anyone.

One word;

Tethering.

4G will be great for people on the move who use laptops or tablets for work. Connecting to your company network via VPN over 4G from anywhere will be a massive boon to a lot of people, myself included.

[DevonBloke]

Also LTE's obvious better perofmance with a dodgy signal.
3G often drops to 300-500Kbps. LTE seems to perform well right up to the point where you lose the signal.

[el_bardos]

Originally Posted by wavejockglw

Who cares about whether it's 5, 10 20 or 40Mbps?

Unless it's replacing fixed line broadband it hardly matters.

<snip>

There may come a time when speed will matter more but it has not arrived yet .

So I take it this time will mysteriously arrive exactly around the time O2 release their 4G network and you're telling us its the best thing since sliced bread, then?