Not so fast: testing finds world's first LTE network isn't very 4G-ish
By Chris Ziegler 
posted January 22nd 2010 6:12PM
posted January 22nd 2010 6:12PM
In a rather disappointing example of "your mileage may vary," market research firm Northstream has put TeliaSonera's shiny new LTE network -- the world's first to go commercial -- to the test, coming away with some disappointing conclusions. The bottom line is that they never managed to go above about 12Mbps downstream, a pretty wild figure considering that Ericsson is in the process of rolling out 84 purely theoretical megabits per second right now using plain old HSPA+ for 3 Scandinavia. The bright side is that they managed a fat 5Mbps on the upstream and experienced consistently lower latency than on the area's 3G networks; in fact, the firm ended up coming away with a glowing impression of the service, assuming (probably accurately) that this is just the first baby step in finding out what LTE is really capable of. And hey, some lucky jerks are getting over 42Mbps down, so it's a crap shoot anyway.
I'm not really up on network technology for cell phone companies, but could it be that the disappointing downstream was due to some type of bottleneck on the backbone that feeds the network?
@gettingmymacon You mean backhaul, and yes, you're right.
That said, if the backhaul is upgraded, the speeds should be much faster.
The important thing to note is that even though the theoretical speeds are high, they're never going to be realistic in the real world. If you look at the SNR cutoffs for most of the faster 4G LTE modulation schemes, you aren't going to see the fastest end speeds anywhere but very close to the tower. There's nothing *wrong* with that, it's just that people look at wikipedia, look at the maximum speed, and make conclusions based on that.
What really is going to speed things up are the 4G MIMO chipsets, smart antennas on the towers, e.t.c. Then you can expect things to really haul.
@Nerdtalker
Well, you're right that backhaul is an issue but there's more issue than that.
-There's frequency choices (the lower frequencies being used for LTE vs. Sprint's Wimax deployments are great for building penetration, but no so much for high speed data vs. higher frequencies which increase your cell density and transmit more data per second).
-There's also the size of the channel being used. The 300Mbps theoretical speed that's often talked about for LTE requires very large channel sizes. The problem is most carriers simply don't have enough spectrum to use those really large channels, so real world deployments both theoretical and real world will be far below what's expected.
-There's also the issue that 4G (both Wimax and LTE) are getting VERY close to the Shannon Limit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon%E2%80%93Hartley_theorem) which for all intents and purposes is the max theoretical bandwidth per Hz. This means that any signal problems (reflections, a spectrally noisy environment, even a rainy day) have the potential to drastically reduce your perception of signal quality. Basically these radio networks are using so many varied techniques to pull large bandwidth through the air that a bad signal can quickly take you from a nice 10Mbps down to a merely acceptable 2Mbps very quickly.
The truth is both Wimax and LTE have similar protocols and theoretical performance per Hz- this means most LTE deployments will likely perform at a similar range to what Sprint's Wimax deployment has seen (4-6Mbps with peaks of around 10-15Mbps). That is until someone goes with massive channels using lots of spectrum- then the sky is the limit!
@Nerdtalker
Also you do raise an interesting point on MIMO that I missed- the problem is size. MIMO only really provides value if you can get lots of diversity (distance) between your antennas- but who wants a data card with 8" between their antennas?
We definitely need some creative solutions in that space (I'd personally like to see the return of extendable / fold out antennas for both handsets and datacards).
@gettingmymacon Probably, yes. This whole article is very misleading because it only talks about the Swedish network. Check out the Norwegian one: http://www.idg.no/multimedia/archive/00041/Vegard_Kjenner_-800_41321a.jpg
Been using this in Stockholm for a while now. Compared to 3G HSPA this is really a step in the right direction. I have never had less that 4-5Mbps down AND more importantly up. This never happen on 3G. Connecting to the network is done in no time and latency is around 20-30 ms. All in all it is a nice experience. Only surprise is the lack of IPv6 support... Perhaps a harware issue?
@Alexx Agreed. Furthermore, Ericsson is responsible for Stockholm's LTE while Huawei won the bid for Oslo.
Side note: Verizon Wireless will be using both Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson for their LTE network.
@mogua
This is probably more related to the cell sizes and the available bandwith (10MHz in Stockholm and 20MHz in Oslo), than who supplied what.
@nilsman73
Nice to see some real numbers on that latency, the term 'low' is a bit vague, on satellite internet 500ms might be 'low' for instance, 'low' is a pretty uninformative statement, they might as well have said 'speeds are great' and skip numbers there too.
@gettingmymacon
I don't know what the channel bandwidth was on the test, but I do know it was using single-in-single-out , no MIMO whatsoever, so that is definitely a major factor in it's slow(er) speed.
Well, they just started the network.
Did you seriously expect to get the max download rate right from the start??
@frauhottelmann
Exactly, anybody expecting to get the full 84Mbps on this is a fool. How long has HSDPA been around? And we still don't even see full speeds on that.
Wireless is a shared bandwidth technology, just like plugging 100 people into a 100Mbps hub, you're never going to get full speeds.
@frauhottelmann
It's not like higher speeds will come with time... I mean Verizon's own LTE projections specifically say that these speeds are what are expected.
" With Verizon Wireless’ 10 + 10 MHz implementation, LTE will be supporting average data rates per user of 5-12 Mbps in the forward link, and 2-5 Mbps in the reverse link. "
https://www.lte.vzw.com/AboutLTE/VerizonWirelessLTENetwork/tabid/6003/Default.aspx
But the LTE fanboys like to pretend that Wimax is crap and LTE will be providing 300Mbps data, unlimited pancakes, and unicorns for all.
@COCOViper
From what I read from WIMAX technology it is dropping speeds the more people connect due to its technology, it simply divides by the number of people, although it has better QoS control I understand, point being that it's not all about being 'fan' of a technology but about the technical realities.
@Wwhat
Well first there's always a bit of speed degredation on any network as more users join, but thats only do to channel crowding and backhaul (i.e. how many users was the tower designed to support- any more than that results in some bandwidth sharing and queuing between devices).
So let's assume the tower is within it's network design limits. I know from doing launch events for Sprint in Portland and Atlanta, we had over 60 devices in one room all running off the same tower and all pulling between 3 and 8Mbps each. Included in those devices were dozens of laptops running speed tests, Palm Pre's and iPod touches connected via Wifi to Wimax, and Roku boxes streaming Netflix HD content.
@COCOViper
* 3-to-8Mbps each
Guess we'll just have to wait for 5G.
Sad, the horns look nice though! 4G like the nexus, the first time humans try to do anything mistakes are made, actually anytime humans do anything mistakes are made! From form this tangled crooked wood from which people are made, nothing perfectly square will ever be built. Good luck on the LTE those who are working to make it a commercial reality!~
Isnt T-Mobile kind of rolling out 7.2Mbps hsdpa, which is still techically 3G?
"T-Mobile's 3g network is faster in some places than some 4g networks" try explaining that to the general public
@Karate Tortoise
How do you figure that? 7.2Mbps still isn't as fast as 12Mbps.
Besides, this network just launched on a new technology. There are bound to be kinks to work out, but once they do the speed should fly up. Think how slow 3G was back in its first offerings (and still today on some networks *cough* *ATT* ). I can't wait till LTE reaches its potential so we can gorge ourselves on even more information than we've ever needed before!
@Karate Tortoise
Also 7.2Mbps is the max speed, on Vodafone HSPDA usually end up no better than 3.5Mbps in real world use.
ah, my mistake.
Looking forward to this network upgrade. Hopefully the next iPhone will support more than 7,2 Mbit/s.
Isn't apple phasing out the iphone?
Start slow then scale up. At least increasing speeds will be easier with the technology already in place. Besides low latency is actually a great accomplishment already.
How does this compare to wimax?
@namyboyz44
Sprint says you're supposed to get 4-6Mbps down on average (so the same) and peaks of around 10Mbps.
Meanwhile the Wimax train keeps on chugging.
12mbits is still a whole hellofalot faster than 3g. Any 3G, I don't care what your "theoretical maximum" is. HSPDA may be "capable" of 7.2mbits, but if any of you have actually gotten that, I will eat my underwear.
@Nolano
Sorry, that should be megabytes per second, not megabits.
@Nolano
... dammit no it shouldn't. Don't mind me, not enough sleep last night.
@Nolano
i get 5 Mbit/s on my 3G, that's close enough :D
The local broadband company in central Oregon has had their LTE network running since mid Dec also. I was getting excited about but sadly they are seeing the same speeds. They are stating anywhere from 2-15Mb speeds depending on signal. Kinda disappointing, was really wanting to cut the cord.
@emctwo
Link please?
@Bryan0101010
http://www.intomobile.com/2009/12/16/local-cable-operator-in-oregon-uses-hspa-to-connect-last-mile-customers.html
I think that's what he is talking about, I am the lone commenter on that article (Nick Doucet) other than the CTO of the company itself. They launched HSPA+ at 21 Mbps speeds, but he talks about in his comment the transition to LTE easily.
http://www.intomobile.com/2009/12/17/exclusive-interview-w-frank-miller-cto-of-bendbroadband-first-hspa-network-in-the-usa.html
This link is the interview of the CTO shortly after he made his comment. Also, I am the only one to comment on that article. :P
@catdogburger
Yeah same place. The $50 for 50gb is if you keep your home internet also...otherwise it is $65 for 50gb. I would easily hit the 50gb mark each month I pay $45 for 25Mb speed at home with 100gb max. Most of major places people hang out at in Bend already have hotspots so it didn't make sense to pay more for less. They originally told me it was going to as good as their cable speeds but they do 60Mb max on cable. I would have been happy with 1/3 of that.
Consdering in the usa most of us are on edge at 100kb downstream and maybe 80kb upstream, feels like its not much faster than dialup. Would love to have 3g, or LTE
How about that, all you Wimax haters??
@Peteman100
Crickets, lol.
I'm normally getting something between 10-20 Mbps with HSPA+ depending on the exact location.
(BTW: The iPhone 3GS doesn't work with O2's HSPA+ sim card, it just doesn't find any network at all. The Nokia 3310 works fine though...)
@ArticiaS
Megabits or megabytes?
@Nolano
Sorry, ignore me.
So, I'm guessing based on that design, Samsung are big Viking's fans?
12mbps isn't bad at all. My wired broadband connection is only 15mbps...
12mbps is fine, but not really what i would expect from 4g (LTE).... I've been getting that (been 8-14mbps down) frequently on my HSPA+ sierra mc8700 pcie card via Telus mobility here in canada
Sprint's WiMax is better. Get with it folks. Sprin't 3g data speeds are very under rated as well.
What's with the horns that always seem to be on the 4G posts. Are you trying to tell us something Chris?
@resolution
I think it's because the first LTE network is in ye old viking territory.
Why would a tech site act surprised when users aren't capping out at PER CHANNEL speeds per user? Unless I'm mistaken, it's 84Mbps per channel which is spread across multiple users. 12Mbps is damn good, IMO.
- VDubb
@VDubb +1
12Mbps seems awesome to me. I've been in actual HSPA+ tests, and to get the top speeds, you need to be next to antenna and be sure that you are the only one under the site (which normally should cover 3-5 square kms...)