LTE trial deemed a success: 170Mbps downloads in a moving car

Controlled LTE trials have been going pretty well of late, but the first test "under everyday conditions" has just gone down in Germany. We're pleased to say that everything went off without a hitch, as a connection using the next-generation (4G) mobile communications standard was maintained while inside a moving car traveling at around 42mph. Aside from the thrill of not dropping in and out of Pidgin at random, experimenters were able to pull downloads of up to 170Mbps and upload at up to 50Mbps. According to Hamid Akhavan, head of T-Mobile, it will still be 2010 (at the very earliest) before any of its markets go live with LTE, but at least we're moving in the right direction, eh?

[Image courtesy of ChrisHarrison]

[John @ Sep 19th 2008 9:16AM]

it doesn't seem quite fair that this beats out my wired connection.

[jtan @ Sep 19th 2008 9:54AM]

don't worry, by the time it comes into service, it will be so chopped up by multiple users (both in terms of traffic/interference and bandwidth allocation) that your wired connection will still be faster by quite a bit

[tijs @ Sep 19th 2008 9:54AM]

"170Mbps downloads in a moving car"

I can do that with a long enough ethernet cable...

[noonas @ Sep 19th 2008 9:18AM]

Holy crap, that's an OLD PowerBook with OS9 ;)

[Winston Wolf @ Sep 19th 2008 9:33AM]

Hey, you can bring down an alien mother ship with that laptop.

[Rik @ Sep 19th 2008 12:06PM]

It's about the size of that DEC Alpha workstation I once had standing in the attic :P

[thebigDallas @ Sep 19th 2008 10:01PM]

why can't all laptops have a trackball

[Jason @ Sep 24th 2008 8:14AM]

OS 9? Not even! That PowerBook is so old it's pre-PowerPC. The last PowerBook with that form factor was the PowerBook 180 (the track BALL is an important distinction as Apple didn't switch to track PADS until later. As far as OS version, depending on exactly which model this is, they originally shipped with some version of System 7, (it wasn't called "Mac OS" until version 8.)

[fieldcar @ Sep 19th 2008 9:19AM]

Both the car and the laptop make me want to puke. The car looks like the plymouth sundance, I sadly had that as my first car, ACK!

[Scotjo @ Sep 20th 2008 1:19AM]

That old car is a Nissan truck (or maybe a Pathfinder) from the '80s. I've been driving one for 22 years, I know that interior.

[robogeek @ Sep 19th 2008 9:27AM]

That's Cool, So when do we get 50 gigaquads per second with a subspace communications message going warp 4.2.

[simon @ Sep 19th 2008 2:49PM]

Around the same time you move out of your parent's basement trekkie

[Kizorblade @ Sep 19th 2008 9:25AM]

Holy crap that's an old Apple. I forgot which model it was.

[anervoustwitch @ Sep 19th 2008 9:38AM]

its a 100-series, other than that its tough to say. its not a 1XXc, as that screen is clearly b&w/grayscale. the screen bezel makes it not a 150.

no real other clues on this one.

[spezi @ Sep 19th 2008 9:47AM]

Apparently a PowerBook 140 with 16 MHz from 1991.

http://www.chrisharrison.net/projects/lic/

[Charlie @ Sep 19th 2008 9:58AM]

The real question is how on earth that thing pulled 170Mbps off any sort of network interface. And exactly what form factor are they producing LTE hardware in that would even hook up to such an ancient machine.

[spezi @ Sep 19th 2008 10:04AM]

Like so often on Engadget, that picture above has nothing to do with the story - it's more "illustrative". See link above

[Phoenix @ Sep 19th 2008 10:03AM]

I'm guessing that's a random photo and the actual test was done with custom hardware.

The "170Mbps" certainly seems photoshopped

[Muhammad-Oli @ Sep 19th 2008 10:12AM]

Yeah I'd say it's photoshopped. It's especially obvious when you consider how it says "170mbps son!"

[Phoenix @ Sep 19th 2008 10:20AM]

I couldn't read the last word lol.

Must be my young eyes failing

[comrade @ Sep 19th 2008 9:32AM]

Thats a Suzuki Swift. Maybe known as Chrysler Sprinter in the US .

[johnmc @ Sep 19th 2008 11:11AM]

Nope, the Swift is a Geo Metro in these parts. I used to own a Swift back in my European days.

[quazi @ Sep 19th 2008 10:49AM]

That's gotta be John Titor's car.

[Broo @ Sep 19th 2008 9:36AM]

lol- love the old-ass Apple laptop...

[Winston Wolf @ Sep 19th 2008 9:38AM]

Hey, you can bring down an alien mother ship with that laptop.

[cayton @ Sep 19th 2008 9:41AM]

Up to 170Mbs? I wonder what it averages?

[Shinigami @ Sep 19th 2008 9:49AM]

First who makes 4G networks available in my country and puts $40 or less for unlimited traffic gets a few million subscribers :)

[David @ Sep 19th 2008 9:51AM]

2010? That means the United States should be getting it around 2028.

[bull3964 @ Sep 19th 2008 10:23AM]

Verizon plans to launch their LTE network by 2010 as well. What do you think that nice chunk of spectrum they bought is going to be used for?

[josearoldan @ Sep 19th 2008 10:57AM]

Which means Puerto Rico may be getting it around 2040

[Scott @ Sep 20th 2008 12:17AM]

@josearoldan

If you guys would agree to become the 51st state, maybe you could be bumped up by a couple years ;)

[Hellios @ Sep 19th 2008 9:54AM]

How about a stable and good 3G coverage first, because a 170Mbps connection is useless if it keeps dropping to Edge speeds at random.

[Big Ang @ Sep 19th 2008 10:39AM]

Holy crap! What the heck are Germans doing with old crappy cars and even older laptops?!?!

ESPECIALLY if you''re testing brand new technology from a multi-million dollar corporation!

Geez, at least get a new laptop, even cheap ones should go for less than 1000 euros in Germany, and then you wouldn't have to hardwire the laptop into the car to get power (like they seem to have done here).

Not to knock the Powerbook (I have a similar one that's been collecting dust in a closet for almost 10 years).

Taking into account the fact that it's an ancient car and an even more ancient laptop, I'd say this might be a photoshop job......

[Ogo @ Sep 19th 2008 11:22AM]

I am hoping you are the most sarcastic person on Engadget and are not at home contemplating whether a picture is real or not.

[john @ Sep 19th 2008 10:03AM]

I was going to pass this article along to some colleagues until i realized they left out the flux capacitor in their photo...

[Jason Litka @ Sep 19th 2008 10:52AM]

...Looks at 20/5 FIOS... Sniff... Sniff...

Really though, this isn't going to be useful for at least a decade in the US, and even then only to a few people. We don't have consistent 3G coverage outside of most major cities and I really doubt we ever will, so the odds of getting 4G speeds when available are going to be slim to none unless you live in a metro area.

[bull3964 @ Sep 19th 2008 11:33AM]

Can't really speak for your experience, but I'm finding it exceedingly rare that I don't have EVDO coverage. Hell, I was able to maintain EVDO service throughout almost the entire drive between Las Vegas and Phoenix and that's a whole lot of nothing.

[Tony @ Sep 19th 2008 10:53AM]

Forget the fact that they pulled 170Mbps from a 4g network, I am absolutely Flabbergasted that the laptop was able to handle those speeds!

[Eric @ Sep 19th 2008 10:57AM]

Comments sort of indicate that sometimes humor flies right over the heads of us readers. I wondered how that thing could pull down 170Mbps, then realized the subtlety of the humor involved.

Maybe some stories are better off without photos, so that photos could play a more important role than just jokes.

Nudge nudge, wink wink, know-what-I-mean?

[Maciek @ Sep 19th 2008 11:03AM]

I would like to see Apple try to squeeze this trackball into any of their current product offerings....Mac Air?....how's that for a challenge

[Kizorblade @ Sep 19th 2008 11:33AM]

The trackball is probably thicker than the Macbook Air, come to think of it.

[PDubNYC @ Sep 19th 2008 12:39PM]

Man, I loved those trackballs. IMO still the best pointing device developed so far. Unfortunately you are all too right about the thickness. Oh well

[tekdroid @ Sep 19th 2008 11:22AM]

Hamid Akhavan, head of T-Mobile, which operates in 12 countries, said in February LTE appears to be the most promising prospect for future networks but he was not willing to commit to the technology until it proved itself.
--------
pr0mising pr0spect?
not willing to commit until it pr0ved itself?

They never mentioned what they were downloading.
Hamid wants a *real* demo.

[Ekauq @ Sep 19th 2008 11:25AM]

now if the world can just agree with a single/pair of frequencies i'll be happy

[lejupp @ Sep 20th 2008 7:24AM]

That would soon become an awfully crowded pair of frequencies...

[Rogue_Genius @ Sep 19th 2008 11:57AM]

42 mph? germany? I'd like to see how those connectivity issues hold up @ Autobahn speeds. 170Mbps @ 170 MPH.

Now THAT is "high speed internet" :D

[schmitty338 @ Sep 19th 2008 12:50PM]

Actually, when it comes to cellphone and internet tech, we Canadians get stuff usually just as fast as the US.

For example, we have excellent 3G and EVDO Rev A coverage and have for quite some time....and we have had cheap, fast cable and DSL for longer than the US has.

[Thach Le @ Sep 19th 2008 12:56PM]

Time for 1Gbps now!