Anyone concerned about LTE speeds once iPhone 5 hits?

[MattMJB0188]

I think what he's saying is that there is pent-up demand for an LTE iPhone, and when it hits it has the potential of DOUBLING the number of LTE devices on Verizon's network in a matter of a few days. We're not talking the gradual loading of the network that has occurred as Verizon added LTE devices; we're talking about a million new LTE devices being added overnight. HUGE difference.

I'm not concerned though. LTE was designed to scale quite well, so it should handle it easily.

Exactly.

 

[Andrew Martonik]

I think what he's saying is that there is pent-up demand for an LTE iPhone, and when it hits it has the potential of DOUBLING the number of LTE devices on Verizon's network in a matter of a few days. We're not talking the gradual loading of the network that has occurred as Verizon added LTE devices; we're talking about a million new LTE devices being added overnight. HUGE difference.

I'm not concerned though. LTE was designed to scale quite well, so it should handle it easily.

What I'm saying is it shouldn't be catching Verizon by surprise... they know that Apple will sell a ton of the next iPhone. Its not going to spring on Verizon randomly. Any failure of their network is purely their fault. They can't blame customers for buying phones on their network.

 

[Channan]

Me. My friend has been looking forward to an LTE iPhone for a while now and I keep teasing him about Apple not wanting to put LTE in the iPhone yet, so I say they're going to wait another year but I'm just secretly hoping they will. =/

 

[blacksapphire08]

Yup, I have a feeling this is part of the reason why Sprint's 3G speeds are horrific now. They just cant handle the additional load from iPhone users. It's part of the reason why I switched to T-Mobile (no iPhone there ).

 

[tony bag o donuts]

I think my 4g troubles in my area are because Big Red is upgrading in anticipation of the iphone 5 and the data use......

 

[arctic388]

in two areas last year when i got my Droid Charge i always had speeds above 20mbs and even 30mbs in those same areas now i rarely get over 10 usually its 5-8mbs. that is still as fast as i need but just saying i dont get those really high speeds now like i did last year.

whats really sad is i just ran it at my work desk and got 156kbps down and 88kbps up. I can walk 20 steps toward door and get 4g.

 

[paul-c]

I'm not worried about the drop in speed...yet.

 

[I Monarch]

Why would the sixth iteration of the iPhone be called the iPhone 5?

 

[pauldroidr2d2]

I'm not worried about it.

 

[smccloud]

To be honest, I'm not worried about an LTE iPhone killing data speeds for the Galaxy Nexus. Even if it does come out by November 11th (when I can get a Galaxy Nexus using my upgrade). I mean I will be coming from a Droid Incredible 2 to a LTE phone. I just hope the iPhone 4S or Razr Maxx drops in price. Wife wants something that isn't black.

 

[Sploinkin]

The only thing I have found that will use all of my LTE speed is Speedtest or if I'm tethering and downloading something on my computer (rare and only when Comcast is sucking). I doubt I'd notice a difference between 30 and 10 mbps.

 

[thebignewt]

I don't get LTE where I live but I've used it. It's faster for websites, but the difference isn't that important. Here's what I think Verizon's strategy is (I'm sure it cost a lot for the LTE network): get new people on 4G, beause you pay more for it (or you will shortly). Get them paying at least $40/month for limited data (but probably enough data for most everyone). Get those people off of their CDMA data lines. Most people will be on CDMA 3G. The hogs will be moved to LTE taking pressure off the regular folks. They can still pay $30. The huge LTE data hogs will probably pay $50. They may even have some light data 3G users paying $20 for email mainly. I'd bet that the LTE network isn't that busy. The problem is that it's still under construction so it's hard to get/maintain a signal consistently.

 

[Kmcferrin]

Thing is iPhone users don't actually use as much data as Android users. You should be worried about larger Android devices launching on Verizon.

Not so fast...

According to this report from last May, Android users used approximately 90MB/month more data than iPhone users:

Android Leads in U.S. Smartphone Market Share and Data Usage | Nielsen Wire

But at the time the iPhones were of the iPhone 3G, 3GS, or 4 variety. But several months later Apple released the iPhone 4S, and wouldn't you know it, data consumption for iPhone users increased dramatically:

iPhone 4S Users Eat Up Far More Data Than Any Other iPhone User
Apple’s Siri uses three times more data than earlier iPhones - The Washington Post

The summary is that iPhone 4S users use 2-3 times the amount of data as users of previous generation iPhone users do. That puts iPhone 4S users (and presumably iPhone 5 users as well) squarely in the category of "biggest mobile data hogs around".

Still, I'm not that worried. If the iPhone 4S didn't cripple the already-stressed 3G networks, I wouldn't count on an LTE-based iPhone crippling the much-faster LTE networks either. Also, I really don't see a massive wave of new smartphone users who are driven by the release of the iPhone 5 (whenever that is). The majority of iPhone 5 users will probably be iPhone upgraders. Finally (and this depends on how the handset is released, whether there is vendor exclusivity, etc), the iPhones are now spread across all of the three largest carriers. Assuming that they all get the iPhone five within a couple of months of each other, any new network load will be spread across multiple carriers.

 

[Kmcferrin]

Why would the sixth iteration of the iPhone be called the iPhone 5?

Why would they call it the iPhone 4 when it's only got 3G?

 

[Droid800]

Why would they call it the iPhone 4 when it's only got 3G?

Erm. Maybe because it was the fourth generation iPhone? I've heard that stupid argument far too much, and it makes less sense than when people around here first started making it.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[Andrew Martonik]

Why would they call it the iPhone 4 when it's only got 3G?

Uh... cus it is the 4th iPhone. They didn't call it the "iPhone 4G". They called it the iPhone 4.

??????

iPhone > iPhone 3G > iPhone 3GS > iPhone 4 > iPhone 4S > iPhone 5 (or whatever).

Pretty clear what they're doing here.

 

[I Monarch]

Uh... cus it is the 4th iPhone. They didn't call it the "iPhone 4G". They called it the iPhone 4.

??????

iPhone > iPhone 3G > iPhone 3GS > iPhone 4 > iPhone 4S > iPhone 5 (or whatever).

Pretty clear what they're doing here.

There it is again... Why would you call a sixth-generation device the "iPhone 5?" The 4S is the fifth iPhone, so calling the 6th iPhone anything short of "iPhone 6" wouldn't make any sense. Every day I hear people ask me "when is the 5 coming out?" It drives me ing crazy. It doesn't make any sense.

If the next iPhone has LTE, I'm going to crack up at the release of the "iPhone 4G."

 

[JediJesus95]

It doesn't matter that it's the 6th gen iPhone. They have a system of naming phones and with that system the next iPhone will be the iPhone 5 (more than likely). Most consumers couldn't care less that its the 6th gen iPhone. If Apple called it iPhone 6 then people would get mad saying where was the iPhone 5.

 

[Andrew Martonik]

There it is again... Why would you call a sixth-generation device the "iPhone 5?" The 4S is the fifth iPhone, so calling the 6th iPhone anything short of "iPhone 6" wouldn't make any sense. Every day I hear people ask me "when is the 5 coming out?" It drives me ing crazy. It doesn't make any sense.

If the next iPhone has LTE, I'm going to crack up at the release of the "iPhone 4G."

It doesn't matter. They have their naming scheme. Let them use it. Wouldn't it be more confusing if they went iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, then iPhone 6? At some point it doesn't matter, they'll probably just call it "iPhone" eventually. Just like they don't update the # of the MacBook Air or MacBookPro. They just refresh them and call them the MacBook Air again.

Don't look into it too much, man. Its really not that big of a deal... Most people just call it "iPhone" anyways. As I said before, just let them be.

 

[craigrn16]

Who says the iPhone 5 will have LTE. That'll make their thin beautiful phone not so thin anymore. Not to mention ruin their battery life advantage. I highly doubt this.