Not all 4G is built equally • Hacker News Board

Re: Not all 4G is built equally

#11

Post by tobylane » Tue, Oct 09, 2012, 10:12 AM UTC

lucian1900 wrote: post #10

skrause wrote: post #6

Unfortunately even the (supposedly international) GSM iPhone 5 is mostly tuned to LTE frequencies commonly used in the USA. In Germany we have multiple 4G frequencies and the new iPhone 5 supports exactly one of them (by T-Mobile, the other carriers have zero of their spectrum supported by the iPhone 5). In other European countries it's even worse. Especially the 800 MHz LTE band would have been useful. This band is…

But then carriers would feel offended for being turned into dumb pipes. Even though it'd be better for everyone.

I don't understand, they aren't meant to be a dumb pipe? Paying purely for data means we don't pay for the marked up services like texts and calls.

Re: Not all 4G is built equally

#12

Post by fulafel » Tue, Oct 09, 2012, 11:03 AM UTC

Interestingly the only other test I found with quick googling had opposite results with Novatel vs iPhone 5:

"Test Results:

iPhone 5 direct via cellular: 4.667Mbps Down & 11.122Mbps Up, 95ms Ping

New iPad via iPhone 5 with Hotspot: 14.10Mbps Down & 1.45Mbps Up, 87ms Ping

New iPad via MiFi 4620L WiFi: 20.08Mbps Down & 8.50Mbps Up, 79ms Ping"

(from http://www.evdoinfo.com/content/view/4281/64/)

Re: Not all 4G is built equally

#13

Post by lucian1900 » Tue, Oct 09, 2012, 11:08 AM UTC

tobylane wrote: post #11

lucian1900 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then carriers would feel offended for being turned into dumb pipes. Even though it'd be better for everyone.

I don't understand, they aren't meant to be a dumb pipe? Paying purely for data means we don't pay for the marked up services like texts and calls.

I'd love them to be a dumb pipe, but they wouldn't. Obviously they want us to pay extra.