What do you think about this article: Metro has slowest LTE speeds in US

[Gman9831]

Bold @start of new paragraph. Original: http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless....s-lte-speed-race-metropcs-stumbles/2013-02-13

AT&T can claim the U.S. LTE title with its customers enjoying avg DL speeds of 13mbps, far outpacing data speeds experienced by customers of its rivals. Regional operator MetroPCS, on the other hand in last place with LTE DL speeds of 1.2mbps, according to an industry vendor.
The LTE speed results were gathered by OpenSignal via its mobile application, which has been DL'd globally 3mill times and delivers crowd-sourced usage data. "It's real world, measured customer experience data," said Brendan Gill, OpenSignal CEO.
OpenSignal's data was gathered over the whole of 2012 & into early 2013."1 reason we wanted to use a broad time spread was that we don't want speeds to be inflated for new networks that don't have that many customers using the capacity at inception," Gill told FierceBroadbandWireless.
OpenSignal stressed that its methodology is affected considerably by device variance. "This goes some way towards explaining why MetroPCS registers such slow speeds, its users are generally on low spec devices".
OpenSignal said its data shows MetroPCS is the slowest LTE network on high-end devices as well. "This is likely explained by the fact that MetroPCS is using a 5MHz channel while most U.S. carriers are using 20MHz that are capable of higher speeds" said the company.
OpenSignal measured Verizon's avg LTE DL speed @10mbps while Sprint's LTE network came in @7.7Mbps. Sprint is launching LTE in the 1900MHz G Block, where it holds a 5x5MHz block of spectrum. Verizon & AT&T both are launching in 700MHz spectrum with mostly 10x10MHz blocks.
The 2 U.S. operators routinely trade places in mobile broadband speed tests. Last year, PCWorld said its tests showed AT&T had the fastest 4G download speeds of any carrier @ 9.12Mbps. In September 2012, wireless testing company RootMetrics reported Verizon's data network (combined LTE & CDMA EV-DO) was the fastest with average supported downlink speeds of 13Mbps & uplink speeds of 7Mbps.
OpenSignal said the average LTE download speed in the United States was 9.6Mbps while globally it was 10.4Mbps. Sweden has the fastest LTE avg speed, averaging 22.1Mbps, while Japan, surprisingly, turned in the slowest at 7.1Mbps. Sweden's results were boosted by the 24.4Mbps speeds delivered by S Comviq, which outpaced Telia's 16.6Mbps. Japan's results were dragged down by NTT DoCoMo's dismal 5.5Mbps speed rating. Softbank delivered 16.2Mbps, while KDDI came in @14.8Mbps, according to OpenSignal.
OpenSignal found that the nations with the fastest average speeds tend to be ones where the population is heavily concentrated in a small number of urban centers. "Countries with a population that is more evenly spread seem to perform slightly worse, perhaps due to the difficulty of rolling-out LTE over a larger geographic area," said the vendor.
OpenSignal said recorded LTE speeds were three times faster than HSPA+ speeds as well as Wi-Fi. "When comparing the speed of LTE to Wi-Fi it is important to remember that the 3.2Mbps figure is a global average and therefore contains within it a vast spread of infrastructures and technologies. That is not to say that LTE is faster than Wi-Fi, but this chart does point towards exciting possibilities for countries that are bypassing fixed-line internet service provision," said the company.
LTE also beat out HSPA+ and Wi-Fi in terms of latency. "With faster pings, LTE offers vastly improved performance for VOIP services like Skype," said OpenSignal.
Another study this week, Juniper Research reported global LTE revenues are expected to reach $340bill in 2017, compared to just over $75bill this year. "This figure will represent 31% of total service revenues from mobile services of all generations (2G/3G/4G) at that time and reflects the continued success of LTE in serving higher value subscribers," said Juniper.
Through 2017, almost 70% of LTE revenues will continue to be generated by N.A. & Far Eastern & China markets, added the firm.

 

[Gman9831]

If Sprint had as many people on LTE as we did there speeds would of been lower. Probably in the 4Mbps range

 

[mike28]

Well here's my two cents I have no problem with numbers of speed test and what they considered fast for me it's fine I'm able to stream music watch movies without major issues so for me is just numbers what's the difference between someone with Verizon downloads a video in 30 seconds and it takes me 50 seconds

 

[Shabbypenguin]

this isnt really surprising, sprints wimax 4g is faster by a lot, heck on sprints 3g i was pulling speeds similar to the metro LTE at my house. while sprint only has a 5x5 in the 1900mhz right now they are deploying 800mhz spectrum later this year which will push it up for speeds.

 

[THE W]

we should be. we have the least amount of spectrum and unlike a lot of the other prepaids we use our own towers.

 

[Gman9831]

I still think that speed of 1.2mbps is pretty inaccurate for a overall metro LTE stand point especially with the speeds people have been posting lately after they've been upped to 5MHz. I would think it would be atleast 3mbps, but anyways it is user collected data which means it could be markets with really good speeds & theyre satisfied so they never really test VS markets with bad speeds that everyone tests to see if the speeds are increasing or not. That's just how I think it goes though and I think that because other studies that weren't crowd sourced(user collected) had metro at much higher speeds.

 

[Gman9831]

this isnt really surprising, sprints wimax 4g is faster by a lot, heck on sprints 3g i was pulling speeds similar to the metro LTE at my house. while sprint only has a 5x5 in the 1900mhz right now they are deploying 800mhz spectrum later this year which will push it up for speeds.

Damn what kinda speeds do you get?
I was just giving a comparison because people would probably wonder why sprint gets 7mbps on the same amount of spectrum as metro but we only get 1.2mbps.

 

[Shabbypenguin]

well last month at my house if i could hit 2mbps on metropcs id be lucky.

Spoiler

however on my sprint evo3d

Spoiler

please bear in mind that this is sprints old wimax 4g network (the one they now share with boost/virgin) so the speeds are a bit on the low side. im supposed to be getting a sprint lte device to play with and ill be able to test sprints LTE speeds .

here is a screen shot of 3g on my sprint galaxy nexus (this was back in nov, before they had LTE in the area)

Spoiler

 

[Gman9831]

this isnt really surprising, sprints wimax 4g is faster by a lot, heck on sprints 3g i was pulling speeds similar to the metro LTE at my house. while sprint only has a 5x5 in the 1900mhz right now they are deploying 800MHz spectrum later this year which will push it up for speeds.

They only have 14MHz in the 800 band which would then be a LTE 5x5MHz & CDMA 4MHz

 

[Shabbypenguin]

They only have 14MHz in the 800 band which would then be a LTE 5x5MHz & CDMA 4MHz

right but then they would have 800mhz and 1900mhz, there is talk of them using one for downlink and the other for upstream. obviously years from that, but would keep sprint competitive with att/verizon in terms of speeds.regardless hopefully metro does something in my area because all the unlimited data means nothing if its a fraction of the speed i could get on another prepaid.

 

[averagewonder]

Wow guess I'm lucky ever since I got my S3 i get usually 5 to 9 mbps and up to 13

 

[OcalaFlGuy]

regardless hopefully metro does something in my area because all the unlimited data means nothing if its a fraction of the speed i could get on another prepaid.

Well, that depends.

Mainly if what you are getting is sufficient for what you need. What anyone else gets really doesn't matter. (Assuming you've eliminated network issues.) Big Speed is fun for screenshots but really isn't "needed" per se.

I'm getting 2-4 here, I'm happy with unlimited that, in fact, Dang Happy for $55 all inclusive. Someday maybe I'll have the Big Dog screen shot to show off but if I could get 4+ more reliably, I'd be ecstatic.

(Speaking of which, wanna hear a pissah? So, I'd timed my exit with Verizon for the exact point I'd save about $40 from my usual bill to do the early out penalty. Penalty of $130. SOB's hit me with $20 taxes on that penalty fee. Verizon, you KNOW where you can go... )

Bruce in Ocala, FL

 

[Ubercharrge]

well last month at my house if i could hit 2mbps on metropcs id be lucky.

Spoiler

however on my sprint evo3d

Spoiler

please bear in mind that this is sprints old wimax 4g network (the one they now share with boost/virgin) so the speeds are a bit on the low side. im supposed to be getting a sprint lte device to play with and ill be able to test sprints LTE speeds .

here is a screen shot of 3g on my sprint galaxy nexus (this was back in nov, before they had LTE in the area)

Spoiler

Wow, even my metro 3G is faster than your 4G speeds :/

 

[Gman9831]

Wow, even my metro 3G is faster than your 4G speeds :/

Mine is just like 300kbps less than that

 

[Gman9831]

right but then they would have 800mhz and 1900mhz, there is talk of them using one for downlink and the other for upstream. obviously years from that, but would keep sprint competitive with att/verizon in terms of speeds.regardless hopefully metro does something in my area because all the unlimited data means nothing if its a fraction of the speed i could get on another prepaid.

Some article had deployment date of LTE on 800 @early 2014 by then LTE-Advanced would be able to aggregate the 2 bands for 10x10MHz
But then you have clearwire with their vast amount{170MHz} of spectrum

 

[THE W]

i get decent speed where im at. in my house i've gotten as much as 7mbps down and 5 up. i average 5 down and 3 up

i get only a 3rd of that everywhere else i go, though for the most part i can surf the web and stream media with no issues.

speedtests may not be as accurate as we may think when it comes to real world use.

 

[Shabbypenguin]

Well, that depends.

Mainly if what you are getting is sufficient for what you need. What anyone else gets really doesn't matter. (Assuming you've eliminated network issues.) Big Speed is fun for screenshots but really isn't "needed" per se.

I'm getting 2-4 here, I'm happy with unlimited that, in fact, Dang Happy for $55 all inclusive. Someday maybe I'll have the Big Dog screen shot to show off but if I could get 4+ more reliably, I'd be ecstatic.

(Speaking of which, wanna hear a pissah? So, I'd timed my exit with Verizon for the exact point I'd save about $40 from my usual bill to do the early out penalty. Penalty of $130. SOB's hit me with $20 taxes on that penalty fee. Verizon, you KNOW where you can go... )

Bruce in Ocala, FL

right but the issue is the speeds i posted above, are not good enough for me.

 

[Joshuah22a]

I get 4-5 in my area... i would be happy aroumd 7-10 that would be perfect for me...when i use youtube late i never buffer..but when i try watching one video in hd it would buffer...

 

[MyUsernameRox]

I wouldn't exactly call my results slow:

http://imgur.com/KQg3SiT.jpg

 

[dulal18]

Peaking at 13mbs download is considered slow? I think instead of the LTE the brand Metropcs is being targeted and condescended. If Metro has the slowest LTE considering how big of a company Sprint is what do they have turtle speed?

 

[g0lden]

i get decent speed where im at. in my house i've gotten as much as 7mbps down and 5 up. i average 5 down and 3 up

i get only a 3rd of that everywhere else i go, though for the most part i can surf the web and stream media with no issues.

speedtests may not be as accurate as we may think when it comes to real world use.

Typically, I can stream audio at 200-300kbps and video at about 700kbps

 

[Shabbypenguin]

Peaking at 13mbs download is considered slow? I think instead of the LTE the brand Metropcs is being targeted and condescended. If Metro has the slowest LTE considering how big of a company Sprint is what do they have turtle speed?

you want to talk peak speeds metropcs is gunna look even worse, as sprints peak speeds are around 28mbps, and verizons around 40. sprints wimax peak top speed is 14mbps but i max out at 9. there is a big difference between real world everyday use and what you can get under optimal conditions.

 

[unnamedny]

guys, some of you have great results, but what open source did is took the average. I only get 800kbps to
1.2mbps in my area. You have to understand that sprint, att, virizon subscribers pay a lot more for the service.

 

[cubone]

guys, some of you have great results, but what open source did is took the average. I only get 800kbps to
1.2mbps in my area. You have to understand that sprint, att, virizon subscribers pay a lot more for the service.

I feel you unnamedny, use to use a 3g phone (the memories D: ). I keep getting 4mb/s and almost 5 up. Which is fine with me

 

[alfick3]

I feel you unnamedny, use to use a 3g phone (the memories D: ). I keep getting 4mb/s and almost 5 up. Which is fine with me

Since I know you are so close to my location, I can look forward to that when I get my Spirit then.