So what does LTE mean for you?

I don't know why there is this fascination with speed. It takes 2 seconds to load the page with this article and then I spend 3 minutes reading it. Overall, what does it matter if the page would loads in 0.1 second? Up to a point speed is important but then it ceases to be. For big downloads, yes, if one could afford it.
I think LTE as a technology is not important in terms of individual speed but because it will be able to accommodate more users at decent speeds.
 
markings said:
I don't know why there is this fascination with speed. It takes 2 seconds to load the page with this article and then I spend 3 minutes reading it. Overall, what does it matter if the page would loads in 0.1 second? Up to a point speed is important but then it ceases to be. For big downloads, yes, if one could afford it.
I think LTE as a technology is not important in terms of individual speed but because it will be able to accommodate more users at decent speeds.
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For me speed is important.
Consider following scenario: I found results on google, now I need quickly to see about 30+ of them now, checking if I got right site and half of them get closed (but need to load it first to see!).
On 1 Meg line it takes forever to do that, especially google images.
 
FFS Vodacom, please stop spending our money on this "Elite" services, and upgrade your fracking existing towers,
so that your clients can stop having to walk out of their homes to be able to get some sort of a signal to make and receive calls.
 
NomNom said:
I only use EDGE on my smart phone, anything else is just too damn expensive.
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That makes no sense whatsoever. Whether you download something at Edge speeds or 3G speeds, it still costs exactly the same.
 
While we all love to test and quote outright speeds (like the 60Mb/s I get on my S3) and it makes for great articles in the press, the main driver behind rolling LTE out is to give more people access to a decent service at a lower cost. Over time LTE will deliver this but we have to start somewhere. That start is today.
 
jannievanzyl said:
While we all love to test and quote outright speeds (like the 60Mb/s I get on my S3) and it makes for great articles in the press, the main driver behind rolling LTE out is to give more people access to a decent service at a lower cost. Over time LTE will deliver this but we have to start somewhere. That start is today.
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I think we will really feel the benefits of LTE next year this time, when enough resources have been put into place. It's still in its infancy commercially, and will continue to grow in the coming months. The article is right about spotty 3G coverage, but would you rather have superior LTE coverage in a year or two, or complete 3G (Lesser throughput) coverage now? You know what I'm saying, homie?

EDIT: Also, I'm really curious to see reports on latency in real world scenarios, if this tech really performs so well as advertised I'm going to be really impressed!
 
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saffakanera said:
I think we will really feel the benefits of LTE next year this time, when enough resources have been put into place. It's still in its infancy commercially, and will continue to grow in the coming months. The article is right about spotty 3G coverage, but would you rather have superior LTE coverage in a year or two, or complete 3G (Lesser throughput) coverage now? You know what I'm saying, homie?

EDIT: Also, I'm really curious to see reports on latency in real world scenarios, if this tech really performs so well as advertised I'm going to be really impressed!
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We would all love to get perfect coverage but it's an ongoing challenge and will never be perfect. Today our 3G coverage is 84% of the population but even then there are too many holes or problem areas inside buildings. Only time and the correct spectrum will fix this.

When we did the trail network on full spectrum we comfortably got sub-20ms on LTE. Often as low as 9ms! With the limited spectrum available to us now (due to being forced to refarm) we see around 40 - 50ms in real world scenarios.
 
Beri said:
Very nice article..... Well done
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Agree, a open and logical take on the topic.

Including this bit:
Vodacom made it clear at the launch on Wednesday that its launching LTE (and not 4G), even though there’s 4G-branding plastered all over its USB dongles. Customers, though, are already using the terms interchangeably (and as journalists covering the sector, many of us have decided to do this to avoid confusing consumers). In time, we’ll all be calling this 4G, full stop.
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Actually, I hope in 10 years the WUG will be the connectivity of choice, both in metropolitan, and rural. The mobile operators have only succeeded in raiding South Africa of its people's wealth, never believe their intentions, its only fabricated by people paid to do so, I take corporate posters on mybb with a moerse grain of salt, these dudes all have angles, they probably scream at their own tech support and treat them like human garbage like most other executives, and then bask in their own egos constantly. Mybb should always be, and forever be, community first.

Technology should be used for the good of the people (Which is not happening at the moment), not for the gains of a few shareholders.

EDIT: Although I am very excited about this tech, I think there's a dark side here as well, the throughput, and the price per drop of data, it's borderline unethical, I think I read something like R900 per minute (Obviously not a real world throughput.) but still, the idea is horrifying, allowing throughput like this coupled with the current death grip of pricing is highly oppressive and shows a strange disregard for your own customer base. It needs to be rectified, actually, it *had* to be rectified prior to the roll out of these speeds already. I'm sitting here, staring at my 200MB of data cap from MTN, with 120MB left for the rest of the month, and I'm wondering, is this really 2012, I get all these magical protocols to connect with, but I am given 200MB at a deluxe discount super duper after hours night rider morning riser out of - in of bundle alpha matrix prorata Ayoba rate? So this is what the mobile data experience is going to be? No thanks.
 
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But, as a reader pointed out on Wednesday: “What is the point of faster internet if the pricing of bandwith stays the same? It really doesn’t matter if I have a download speed of 1000Mbs if I can still only afford 2gb per month.”

Until we see much, much bigger (and far cheaper) data bundles – like 20GB, 50GB, 100GB – LTE isn’t going to mean much at all.

Data pricing needs to come down - launching LTE with the same pricing you currently have is like selling guns to minors!
 
markings said:
I think LTE as a technology is not important in terms of individual speed but because it will be able to accommodate more users at decent speeds.
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I am no expert on how the air interface etc works....but from what I understand LTE is a whole lot more efficient when it comes to how it uses the spectrum allocated to it. This means that for a network LTE is a very important step forward in the sense of increasing the capacity of the network and being able to accomodate more users at higher average speed. I am guessing also that as LTE coverage grows and more people come on line with LTE....pressure on the HSPA+ network will ease off slightly and users still on that network hopefully will see a increase in experience also? That is what my logic tells me...not sure if it works that way though.
 
Mys said:
But, as a reader pointed out on Wednesday: “What is the point of faster internet if the pricing of bandwith stays the same? It really doesn’t matter if I have a download speed of 1000Mbs if I can still only afford 2gb per month.”

Until we see much, much bigger (and far cheaper) data bundles – like 20GB, 50GB, 100GB – LTE isn’t going to mean much at all.

Data pricing needs to come down - launching LTE with the same pricing you currently have is like selling guns to minors!
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I am already limited to the price of data on 3g nevermind LTE
 
I am sorry but the only purpose LTE would serve is to feed the Out of bundle shark, imagine how quickly that measly 1gig package would get used up, and your expenditure there after.

Untill Vodacom drops there R2.00 per meg OBR I will stay clear from this.
 
Ockie said:
I am no expert on how the air interface etc works....but from what I understand LTE is a whole lot more efficient when it comes to how it uses the spectrum allocated to it. This means that for a network LTE is a very important step forward in the sense of increasing the capacity of the network and being able to accomodate more users at higher average speed. I am guessing also that as LTE coverage grows and more people come on line with LTE....pressure on the HSPA+ network will ease off slightly and users still on that network hopefully will see a increase in experience also? That is what my logic tells me...not sure if it works that way though.
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Spot on.
 
Does anyone have a list of LTE capable phones on the market, or will all future smart phones be capable?
 
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