How will hsupa help

[Eccezarathustra]

Verizon's LTE isn't 4G either. LTE Advanced is 4G. Also the recently approved 802.16m wimax (not Sprint's version) qualifies. 4G is a theoretical dl of 1gbps stationary and 100mbps while moving. The only reason verizon seems to have "4G" is that they had to abandon cdma rev a to truly expand their data offering. Eventually they will abandon cdma altogether.

 

[anon62607]

Verizon's LTE isn't 4G either. LTE Advanced is 4G. Also the recently approved 802.16m wimax (not Sprint's version) qualifies. 4G is a theoretical dl of 1gbps stationary and 100mbps while moving. The only reason verizon seems to have "4G" is that they had to abandon cdma rev a to truly expand their data offering. Eventually they will abandon cdma altogether.

Out of curiosity, if LTE not-advanced were implemented in 500 MHz of spectrum would it then qualify a 4G?

4G isn't just target bandwidth but also spectral efficiency (bitrate of delivered payload bandwidth per Hz of spectrum, thus a 4G technology might be deployed in, say, 1500 kHz of spectrum in some countries or markets, delivering 7 Mbps to a stationary UE but be "4G"

I think one of the original purposes of 4G wasn't so much single end user experience (what gets delivers to a single handset) but more making a uniform worldwide technology that can deliver acceptable, efficient performance in constrained spectrum as well as high performance in more open environments - from the cellphone company point of view, they can service more users in less spectrum (thus a cost advantage) than with 3G.

 

[Terrigno]

I think a lot of people are forgetting what 3G is... Originally it specified downlinks of 1mbps, what At&t sold as UMTS back in the day. Since then they have started selling
HSPA (primarily hsdpa as the uplink didnt matter to most people and they could save on bandwidth by offering only asychronous service) Back when At&t started selling 3G no one really cared about internet speeds on phones. Even the original iPhone didnt have 3G capability. Now that everyone has gotten smart phones in the era of
3.5G or hsdpa everyone automatically thinks that 3G=3mbps. It doesn't. While the
theoretical cap on 3.5G is about 6mbps (correct me if im wrong its too late to look this up) Actual speeds vary. I've gotten 4.5mbps on my Captivate, and consider myself lucky. At&t's 4G service however is no different than its 3.5G, nor is Tmobile's. They are just extensions of the original HSPA specification, the difference is how much of the channel is allocated to each subscriber and the release under which the phone must comply. But at the end of the day its the exact same thing, only bumped up a bit.

HSUPA helps as has been pointed out because tcp traffic requires acknowledgements to be sent, and that slow upload slows down real time browsing. My Captivate can get 1.5mbps up (HSUPA) my wife's Inspire 4G gets
300kbps. My browsing is slightly faster.

On another note, as far as i can tell 4G has only been rolled out to 8 cities in the US, according to At&t's website. NoCal, SoCal, Dallas, Chicago, Baltimore, Providence, Charlotte, and i think Phoenix... the data is hard to come by even At&t
reps aren't sure. But here's the rub, since its the same tech (akin to ordering a higher speed from your cable company) They can say that its available (sorta) but they just need to improve the backhaul (their connection from each tower to the internet).

Are they taking their time? Yes, but im overall satisfied with their service. Did I care about 4G 3 months ago? no, will i wait until the kinks are ironed out. Yes.

Good point!