The state of LTE in the U.S.: How the carriers’ 4G networks stack up

[jamisonshaw125]

Gotta love these

Edited January 31, 2014 by lilotimz

[Ascertion]

 

 

The sad thing is Sprint has the spectrum resources to build the biggest, baddest LTE network in the country. It just refuses to do so. As of now, Sprint’s mobile broadband service is the slowest in the country, it has the least amount of capacity and it has the smallest coverage footprint. Maybe one day Sprint will truly live up to it’s 4G potential, but I doubt its customers will wait that long.

Gotta love the ignorance of these writers.  They don't realize Sprint's upgraded ~28,000 in the last 12 months, nor do they think they're even trying...They are right about the Spectrum holdings, though.

[Conan Kudo]

Gotta love the ignorance of these writers.  They don't realize Sprint's upgraded ~28,000 in the last 12 months, nor do they think they're even trying...They are right about the Spectrum holdings, though.

The problem is that even with all these upgrades, Sprint is perceived to be unable to keep up with the rest of the national operators. That, in itself, is a huge problem. Sprint's Spark isn't helping, it's making everything worse by raising people's expectations and having them crash and burn through real-world experiences.

[S4GRU]

Wow, Kevin Fitchard really blew it on his Sprint coverage in the article.  That is the worst piece I've ever read from him.  I'm really shocked.  His Band 26 info is wrong, there is even Band 26 live right this very second.  Also, no one is aggregating different bands yet.  Why would you hold that against Sprint?  

 

But worst of all, his Band 41 stuff is completely off the mark.  He know that Band 41 speeds can be kept way higher than 5-12Mbps because Sprint has so much capacity.  They can just keep deploying carrier after carrier to keep peak speeds up.  Sprint can keep average speeds way over 30Mbps on Band 41 if it wants to.  It mentions 5-12Mbps because of the signal strength many will encounter, especially deep in buildings.  Not because of network performance.

 

Since he is so familiar with carrier aggregation and holds it against Sprint for not doing it with other bands together, why doesn't he mention that Sprint is working on aggregating Band 41 carriers to bring really fast speeds surpassing even the other wireless providers?

 

I'm really disappointed in Kevin Fitchard.

 

Robert

[S4GRU]

The problem is that even with all these upgrades, Sprint is perceived to be unable to keep up with the rest of the national operators. That, in itself, is a huge problem. Sprint's Spark isn't helping, it's making everything worse by raising people's expectations and having them crash and burn through real-world experiences.

 

That's your perception too.  Isn't that convenient?  Kevin supports your narrative.  Band 41 is helping, buddy.  Helping a lot.  You only look for evidence that supports your anti-Sprint, Magenta loving point of view.

 

Robert

[S4GRU]

The problem is that even with all these upgrades, Sprint is perceived to be unable to keep up with the rest of the national operators. That, in itself, is a huge problem. Sprint's Spark isn't helping, it's making everything worse by raising people's expectations and having them crash and burn through real-world experiences.

 

He also makes it sound like T-Mobile has a 20MHz network everywhere.  No mention of lack of rural coverage.  No mention of the patchy LTE network.  No mention they only have 5MHz in some markets.  Only the good news.  And with Sprint, only the bad news.  And even the bad news was poorly portrayed.  It's a bad piece.

 

Robert

[JossMan]

Lol...T-Mobile's LTE Miracle?!?!     

[lilotimz]

[Ascertion]

The problem is that even with all these upgrades, Sprint is perceived to be unable to keep up with the rest of the national operators. That, in itself, is a huge problem. Sprint's Spark isn't helping, it's making everything worse by raising people's expectations and having them crash and burn through real-world experiences.

You don't think T-Mobile boasting their 120mbps speeds isn't setting customer's expectations high?  They've got it only in 1 city so far.  Sprint's only promising 5-12mbps, which is perfectly reasonable.  B41 will and does bring faster speeds than that but Sprint is under-promising and over-delivering.

[Conan Kudo]

He also makes it sound like T-Mobile has a 20MHz network everywhere.  No mention of lack of rural coverage.  No mention of the patchy LTE network.  No mention they only have 5MHz in some markets.  Only the good news.  And with Sprint, only the bad news.  And even the bad news was poorly portrayed.  It's a bad piece.

 

Robert

Err, actually, he did mention that. T-Mobile does generally have a 20MHz network in most markets, when you realize he's talking about 10MHz FDD (10+10 MHz). He refers to Verizon's AWS network as a 40MHz network, so that's a good clue to note.

 

He did also mention the lack of mobile broadband coverage outside the metro areas, too.

 

You don't think T-Mobile boasting their 120mbps speeds isn't setting customer's expectations high?  They've got it only in 1 city so far.  Sprint's only promising 5-12mbps, which is perfectly reasonable.  B41 will and does bring faster speeds than that but Sprint is under-promising and over-delivering.

Sprint is mentioning 50-60 Mbps in its press releases. Those get repeated everywhere. It's only after you actually contact Sprint PR for details do they mention the 5-12Mbps number.

 

I don't specifically recall any mentions of 120Mbps outside of Dallas, where it exists today. They've been using Ookla data to show T-Mobile is the fastest, on average.

[Boosted20V]

He quotes every other providers peak speeds, but mentions Sprint's advertised speeds and holds it against them. Mentions other carriers aggregating bands which hasn't been done, and says Sprint won't do the same. Certainly had a bone to pick going into writing that article.

[JossMan]

Robert, I have a bad feeling about this thread...

[irwinshere]

That's your perception too. Isn't that convenient? Kevin supports your narrative. Band 41 is helping, buddy. Helping a lot. You only look for evidence that supports your anti-Sprint, Magenta loving point of view.

 

Robert

Is he a paid tmo salesman? Sure sounds like it.

 

Jim, Sent from my Photon 4G using Tapatalk 2

 

 

 

[S4GRU]

Robert, I have a bad feeling about this thread...

 

I'm watching.  Trolls will be executed on sight.

 

Robert

[Conan Kudo]

That's your perception too.  Isn't that convenient?  Kevin supports your narrative.  Band 41 is helping, buddy.  Helping a lot.  You only look for evidence that supports your anti-Sprint, Magenta loving point of view.

 

Robert

Hardly. I refuse to make any judgement on Spark until I can witness it myself. The only judgement I can make is that I am not likely to be able to try it for at least a year or two, since it'll have to make its way down from Tier 1 cities to Tier 3 cities. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to travel to a Tier 1 city soon to try it.

 

I'm only saying what most of the people I talk to say.

 

While I was forced to cancel my Sprint service again and return my Moto X because of costs (I needed cash to pay for new glasses, since they broke on Christmas), I do plan to re-establish service soon. I do currently still own a Galaxy S4 mini, which is a tri-band device. I would have rather sold it to buy a Nexus 5, but it'll do.

 

And LTE multi-carrier will help, in places where Sprint actually has Band 41 deployed. The number of places it is accessible is growing almost every day, but it's still not going to be very large before the end of the year.

[S4GRU]

Hardly. I refuse to make any judgement on Spark until I can witness it myself. The only judgement I can make is that I am not likely to be able to try it for at least a year or two, since it'll have to make its way down from Tier 1 cities to Tier 3 cities. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to travel to a Tier 1 city soon to try it.

 

I'm only saying what most of the people I talk to say.

 

While I was forced to cancel my Sprint service again and return my Moto X because of costs (I needed cash to pay for new glasses, since they broke on Christmas), I do plan to re-establish service soon. I do currently still own a Galaxy S4 mini, which is a tri-band device. I would have rather sold it to buy a Nexus 5, but it'll do.

 

Don't you have to say that you have to wait to see Tmo 20MHz service yourself?  And see it spread to all areas of the country?  Say, Starkville??  Get off it, man.

 

Robert

[anthony.spina97]

I'm watching. Trolls will be executed on sight.

 

Robert

 

-Anthony

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk

[S4GRU]

-Anthony

Anyone using Doctor Who references, gets bonus points!    

 

I need to get a Dalek emoticon!

 

Robert

[JossMan]

[anthony.spina97]

I just read the article. That was disgusting.

 

-Anthony

[IamMrFamous07]

Article was disgusting and straight ignorance. S**t like that makes me want sprint and SoftBank come with a bang this year!

Hopefully they exceed their deployment goals for 800. & 2600. Also I hope they start to deploy 20+ 20 end of this year.

I kind of wish sprint waited to announce spark though. I personally think they should of started deploying it and then once they completed the 1900 lte rollout then announce spark.

[Conan Kudo]

Don't you have to say that you have to wait to see Tmo 20MHz service yourself?  And see it spread to all areas of the country?  Say, Starkville??  Get off it, man.

 

Robert

I want both Sprint and T-Mobile LTE service in Starkville. Honestly, I don't care too much about LTE from T-Mobile, as the HSPA+ is plenty fast. But I do care about LTE from Sprint, because the EvDO is horrible.

[centermedic]

I'm watching.  Trolls will be executed on sight.

 

Robert

[S4GRU]

I want both Sprint and T-Mobile LTE service in Starkville. Honestly, I don't care too much about LTE from T-Mobile, as the HSPA+ is plenty fast. But I do care about LTE from Sprint, because the EvDO is horrible.

 

If WCDMA is plenty fast for you, then you certainly are not in a position to complain about Spark/B41 high speeds.  So you must at least dispute Kevin's Band 41 conclusions, correct?  Also, Sprint has launched LTE service in Starkville, and all over the Golden Triangle.  I know you once claimed that you couldn't connect, but surely it is live now.  Sprint shows it on their coverage maps.  So this also must make you happy?  Correct?

 

Robert

[Conan Kudo]

If WCDMA is plenty fast for you, then you certainly are not in a position to complain about Spark/B41 high speeds.  So you must at least dispute Kevin's Band 41 conclusions, correct?  Also, Sprint has launched LTE service in Starkville, and all over the Golden Triangle.  I know you once claimed that you couldn't connect, but surely it is live now.  Sprint shows it on their coverage maps.  So this also must make you happy?  Correct?

 

Robert

How can I dispute what I've never used? I've only managed to used Band 25 LTE in the last week before returning the Moto X. The low latency (~80ms) was impressive, but the throughput is depressingly low, averaging around 4Mbps, despite the low number of Sprint subscribers in the area. I also had some difficulty maintaining a connection, even in a strong area, but I'm not sure if that was a problem with the Moto X.

 

I am hopeful that if Band 41 service were to launch here, the speeds would be raised to >15Mbps (meeting or exceeding T-Mobile's HSPA+21 average speed).

 

And seriously, why the heck are you mad at me?