The iPhone 4S, HSPA+, and When HSPA+ is Real 4G • Hacker News Board

Re: The iPhone 4S, HSPA+, and When HSPA+ is Real 4G

#11

Post by joebadmo » Mon, Oct 10, 2011, 6:34 PM UTC

ugh wrote: post #8

joebadmo wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't stop them from making sure you know that the 4S is just as fast all these "4G" phones (stopping short of comparing to real 4G phones, of course). https://plus.google.com/109995794392976695103/posts/PdBbSct8...

Other manufacturers have only themselves to blame for that.

I would be surprised if it wasn't the carriers that started that particular obfuscation.

Re: The iPhone 4S, HSPA+, and When HSPA+ is Real 4G

#12

Post by dan1234 » Mon, Oct 10, 2011, 6:39 PM UTC

coob wrote: post #3

Does anyone know if o2 in the UK support the higher speeds? Google's giving me nothing.

Well, the bottom of this press release (http://mediacentre.o2.co.uk/Press-Releases/O2-first-to-switc...) has the following claim:

"O2’s UK 3G (HSPA+ 900 / 2100 MHz) network currently provides voice and high speed data services of up to 14.4Mbps (21Mbps in the coming months) to over 84% of the UK population"

Re: The iPhone 4S, HSPA+, and When HSPA+ is Real 4G

#13

Post by iaskwhy » Mon, Oct 10, 2011, 6:50 PM UTC

tesseract wrote: post #9

iaskwhy wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably a typo... :P For me the surprise was iPhone 3G back then with Apple skipping the iPhone 2. Apple probably was thinking about iPhone 4G but it wasn't perfect yet or they just wanted to stop marketing hardware features like that.

Apple likes to call their products by the same name worldwide. Are there any countries other than the US where HSPA+ networks are advertised as 4G? And on the other hand, are there countries where advertising HSPA+ as 4G is prohibited?

In at least some European countries 4G is everywhere.

Re: The iPhone 4S, HSPA+, and When HSPA+ is Real 4G

#14

Post by tpurves » Mon, Oct 10, 2011, 7:26 PM UTC

runjake wrote: post #2

I've tested a variety of HSPA+ devices on AT&T's networked and never even approached the HSPA theoretical max of 14.4Mbps, let alone HSPA+'s max. More commonly, I'd see speeds of 1-4Mbps down. Never any more than 4.

In Canada it's not hard to get 10-13mbps down speeds with HSPA+ devices, But that is with a 21MBit device (USB broadband stick). All the carriers in Canada are now 21.6MB HSPA+ and converting to 44MB HSPA and 75MBIT LTE. What G would you call that?

Re: The iPhone 4S, HSPA+, and When HSPA+ is Real 4G

#15

Post by dangrossman » Mon, Oct 10, 2011, 7:43 PM UTC

iaskwhy wrote: post #13

tesseract wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple likes to call their products by the same name worldwide. Are there any countries other than the US where HSPA+ networks are advertised as 4G? And on the other hand, are there countries where advertising HSPA+ as 4G is prohibited?

In at least some European countries 4G is everywhere.

That doesn't answer either question -- first you need to define what they're calling "4G" in those countries. Is it HSPA+? WiMax? LTE?

Re: The iPhone 4S, HSPA+, and When HSPA+ is Real 4G

#16

Post by ugh » Mon, Oct 10, 2011, 8:48 PM UTC

tesseract wrote: post #9

iaskwhy wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably a typo... :P For me the surprise was iPhone 3G back then with Apple skipping the iPhone 2. Apple probably was thinking about iPhone 4G but it wasn't perfect yet or they just wanted to stop marketing hardware features like that.

Apple likes to call their products by the same name worldwide. Are there any countries other than the US where HSPA+ networks are advertised as 4G? And on the other hand, are there countries where advertising HSPA+ as 4G is prohibited?

I think both 3G and 4G are a lot less present in carriers’ marketing in Germany. And maybe I missed it but I haven’t seen a big marketing campaign for 4G in Germany. I wasn’t even aware how widely available it already is†.

Carriers in Germany seem to be a lot more willing to use standard names for their marketing, e.g. UMTS, HSDPA, LTE, probably mostly because all carriers are using the same standards. (No one uses CDMA in Germany.)

I also haven’t seen any carrier refer to something as 4G that’s not LTE.

—

† http://www.t-mobile.de/funkversorgung/inland/ — http://www.vodafone.de/privat/hilfe-support/netzabdeckung.ht...

What I would like to know is why LTE is available in all those weird places with relatively low population densities and rarely in cities. What’s going on there?

Re: The iPhone 4S, HSPA+, and When HSPA+ is Real 4G

#17

Post by iaskwhy » Mon, Oct 10, 2011, 9:39 PM UTC

dangrossman wrote: post #15

iaskwhy wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In at least some European countries 4G is everywhere.

That doesn't answer either question -- first you need to define what they're calling "4G" in those countries. Is it HSPA+? WiMax? LTE?

True, sorry, I read it as something else.

Re: The iPhone 4S, HSPA+, and When HSPA+ is Real 4G

#18

Post by strmpnk » Mon, Oct 10, 2011, 11:31 PM UTC

runjake wrote: post #2

I've tested a variety of HSPA+ devices on AT&T's networked and never even approached the HSPA theoretical max of 14.4Mbps, let alone HSPA+'s max. More commonly, I'd see speeds of 1-4Mbps down. Never any more than 4.

I think it depends largely on the pair of devices. Both the cells and the local device need to support higher speeds. Here in NYC I have tested 3 HSPA+ devices and only one of them gets close to 14.4Mbps on AT&T (probably due to radio differences in the devices). Outside the city, it's never that fast (probably the cells are slower).