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General discussion

Sprint 4G is a joke

May 22, 2010 10:51AM PDT

Next generation 4G network? OK sounds good.
But, infact it's merely 10mbit wimax. Even worse is in typical use it seems to be achieving only around 4mbit! That is a really pathetic showing of 4G.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-gadgeteer/review-sprint-overdrive-rocks-4g-at-more-than-double-3g-speeds/2463
Maybe this is faster than EVDO and AT&T's overloaded network. But by international standards, Sprint 4G is much slower than many 3G networks.
HSPA 3G. Telstra in Australia is at 42mbit, Vodafone in Hong Kong has 28mbit, Rogers in Canada is at 21mbit, Those are the world's fastest 3G networks, and real world speeds are around half the full rate.
Scanedavian TeliaSonera is already operating LTE at 50mbit in Oslo and Stockholm. Now that's a 4G network!
AT&T and T-Mobile have access to the best 3G technology with the standards their networks are using, they could easily bypass Sprint 4G in speed if they wanted to. I guess they're content to be mediocre. Which is really the problem with US carriers, isn't it. Size is no excuse, note Canada and Australia.

Discussion is locked

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The problem is complacency, standard fragmentation
May 22, 2010 11:33PM PDT

And the resulting lack of any significant competition for each standard. As I understand it, all the other markets are all GSM. Correct?

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Yeah.. Pretty much
May 23, 2010 2:17PM PDT

Well, W-CDMA HSDPA if you want to be pedantic (and I love being pedantic), the 3G standard for GSM networks, actually works totally different to GSM and is more similar to CDMA. Wideband CDMA.
Don't forget the spectrum though, which makes some of these W-CDMA networks incompatible with each other. Europe is mainly on 2100mhz with some 900mhz. Rogers and Telstra are on 850mhz.
AT&T is 850mhz and 1900mhz, T-Mobile is 2100/1700mhz, 2100mhz with 1700mhz for the uplink.
iPhone is a triband phone with 2100mhz, 1900mhz and 850mhz, so it works in europe, on AT&T and on Telstra and Rogers, not on T-Mobile... There are no quad band W-CDMA phones out there, the chipsets can't do it.
So infact, none of the 4 US networks are actually using the same standard. Even the CDMA networks, Verizon is 800mhz, Sprint 1900mhz.

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Hmm lets see judging from this article...
May 25, 2010 11:04AM PDT
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(NT) YMMV ;-)
May 26, 2010 5:44AM PDT