Geographical 4G Speed Differences

[FrankXS]

I suppose this is a trite, irrelevant, non-important post, but I can't help myself I traveled from Denver to Florida (Ft. Lauderdale) recently to catch a cruise ship. As I have experienced in the past, my Florida 4G speeds tested at ~13MB down and 8MB up. While my Denver 4G speeds consistently (in different locations around the city) test at 3.5MB down and 2.5 MB up.

Why?

Annoying.

-Frank

 

[spartanguy81]

I would assume there are differences in signal strength, distance to the tower, obstructions, network congestion, interference and the list could go on and on. I get 6 to 8 down at home, my work is only a few miles away and I get 12 to 25 down.

 

[FrankXS]

I would assume there are differences in signal strength, distance to the tower, obstructions, network congestion, interference and the list could go on and on. I get 6 to 8 down at home, my work is only a few miles away and I get 12 to 25 down.

This happens even when I am literally sitting under the cell antenna. I can only assume it is because of "throttling" implemented due to "Network Optimization" in my area. Remember, "Network Optimization" is not limited to only the "top 5 percent of data users". It is always present. Of course, we would want it to be to ensure the reliability of the network. Still pisses me off

-Frank

 

[R3dM0nd]

might be congestion of device, like denver launched with 4g last dec if i believe correctly like every nfl city and nearly a year later im sure more people are using it as the floride market depends on the area may be newer or just less populated with lte devices

 

[dragonsamus]

How are you testing your speed?
In Sacramento, CA, using the speed test app I get 5 mbps down and 5 up. If I go to the website on my phone I get 12 mbps down and 10 up.

Recently, I was in San Jose and I tested my speed using the app. I was getting 26 mbps down and 11 up. When I used my phone and went to the speed test site I was consistently getting 40 mbps down and 15 up.

If I'm home and I tether my laptop to my phone and go on the site with my laptop, I get 20 mbps down and 5 up.

 

[TauntingBull]

Ive seen this as well. NYC easily tops the speeds. I was getting 15 MB down sitting in a basement restaurant in Manhattan this weekend. I guess throttling in NYC will give Big Red a bad name.

 

[Bond32]

The throttling only applies to 3G and top data users of 3G. In addition I am approching 20 gigs of usage for this month and have never seen anything slow or get any notices. This is what I heard in the store, and also on the article it says 3G only.

What are you using to measure the speeds? Because if you use the speedtest.net app then there are variations in the server you choose.

 

[anon62607]

This happens even when I am literally sitting under the cell antenna. I can only assume it is because of "throttling" implemented due to "Network Optimization" in my area. Remember, "Network Optimization" is not limited to only the "top 5 percent of data users". It is always present. Of course, we would want it to be to ensure the reliability of the network. Still pisses me off

-Frank

If you are sitting "literally" directly under the antenna (inside the fenced area) you won't get a good signal. The antenna are fairly directional and set up for angles not so steep.

 

[BostonBeats88]

There is a VWZ antenna right next to my apartment and I have notice that my signal strength is definitely spotty. As valeuche mentioned it is definitely a directional antenna, and I always assumed it was the same principle as wireless routers. (i.e. if your laptop is right next to the router then the signal strength will be quite poor.)

Here, several miles outside of Boston my 4g speed is 12.6mb Down and 3.33mb up (just for comparison)

 

[Shryne]

In memphis, a couple months before 4G was officially turned on, I would get 30-35MB/s down (with up speeds bugged on app) quite consistently. Now I get around 14 MB/s pretty consistently in memphis. I've gotten around 18 MB/s in destin, FL.

 

[acmorris]

This happens even when I am literally sitting under the cell antenna. I can only assume it is because of "throttling" implemented due to "Network Optimization" in my area. Remember, "Network Optimization" is not limited to only the "top 5 percent of data users". It is always present. Of course, we would want it to be to ensure the reliability of the network. Still pisses me off

-Frank

Frank ever considered your phone may not like you when your home. Ha! Ha! The phone is saying "You need to be busy with something else, instead of playing with me all the time?!!! LOL!

 

[joshua.worth]

I've got the same gripe here in Denver

 

[anon62607]

In memphis, a couple months before 4G was officially turned on, I would get 30-35MB/s down (with up speeds bugged on app) quite consistently. Now I get around 14 MB/s pretty consistently in memphis. I've gotten around 18 MB/s in destin, FL.

Verizon had always said to expect 5-12 mbps once the network is loaded and I imagine it's probably going to end up closer to 5 mbps than 12 mbps. It's been nice being on a brand new, high capacity network more or less all by ourselves but those joyful months are coming to an end.

Don't be too disappointed if when Verizon's LTE network is as loaded as Sprint's Wimax is (in terms of customers per geographic sector on average) that the realized single end user performance on Verizon's LTE is lower.

Sprint has 3 or 4 10MHz channels (depending on market) in TDD I imagine are mostly dedicated to the forward (download) link, and modulation complexity and other technical aspects are equal on WiMax to LTE. Verizon presently has only 1 10MHz sector dedicated to forward link. Even giving up a a bit of bandwidth for process gain to make up for greater atmospheric attenuation at 2600 MHz Sprint has more overall capacity.

I think android geeks (and I am guilty of this too) tend to think that they have all of Verizon's spectrum all to themselves - 10 MHz up, 10 MHz down, *just for me*. They do the math and of course it seems like you should be seeing 40+ Mbps when you are at 1/2 or 1/3rd the cell radius distance to the tower.

The math looks a little different when you add all the other users in the area to it. T-Mobile might even have higher theoretical capacity (when operating in one of the HSPA+ MIMO revisions in places where they have 10 MHz available) than what Verizon currently has deployed.

 

[FrankXS]

The math looks a little different when you add all the other users in the area to it.

Or, maybe more accurately, when you consider VZW's tweaking of the installation site to allow for more users, whether than are currently using the network or not.

It is my belief that if you are experiencing only network congestion, you will see variations in speed tests from the same cell site. If you see consistent speeds, day after day, for half a year, it's probably not congestion. It's VZW's configuration (i.e. Network Optimization). I also believe this "configuration" will be different depending on "expected" local market. Just my thoughts.

-Frank

 

[anon62607]

Or, maybe more accurately, when you consider VZW's tweaking of the installation site to allow for more users, whether than are currently using the network or not.

It is my belief that if you are experiencing only network congestion, you will see variations in speed tests from the same cell site. If you see consistent speeds, day after day, for half a year, it's probably not congestion. It's VZW's configuration (i.e. Network Optimization). I also believe this "configuration" will be different depending on "expected" local market. Just my thoughts.

-Frank

I witnessed my almost-release day Thunderbolt drop from stratospheric performance (>30 mbit) to 10 or so mbit across multiple markets before I came to afghanistan. It's anecdotal but to me that looks like the network becoming loaded - and we're still in the very early stages of it.

Also we have to keep in mind that there's several networks going on here, the "backhaul" network and the over-the-air spectrum. I imagine that in a well designed modern network the backhaul will never be able to be saturated by the 3 or so tower sectors.

The over-the-air channel is getting more saturated, though. There are some things that verizon can do to hide that (allow the first 20 seconds or so of a data stream at the highest possible speed/quality of service to make benchmarks show that the network seems to be unloaded).

 

[androidguy916]

Like dragonsamus I am in Sacramento and no matter where I go around town I'm lucky if I get 5 up and 5 down. In San Jose I only got 5 up and 7 down. Maybe it's my phone but I'm not too impressed so far. I left my phone on 4G for a while but since I don't see any benefit for what I do (email, I Heart Radio, very little web browsing) I went back to manually being locked on 3G. At least my battery lasts longer.

Bill