Reply to post:

Stop whining, America: Your LTE makes Europe look slow

Rampant Spaniel

I live in the states and the situation varies wildly from location to location and provider to provider.I was shocked upon first moving here just how poor the coverage was in rural areas. Even the much vaunted Verizon had large swathes of the state uncovered or the service was so poor so as to be useless. Speed was also poor, tmobile (the 'cheap carrier') actually had some of the best speeds due to their hspda service although their coverage was the worst.

The advent of mobile video seemed to bring att, verizon and sprint to their knees, at least here. I got a verizon tablet and the speeds were pathetic on lte (sub 1mbps) even when close to and in clear sight of a verizon tower. When they had ~35m subscribers tmobile also had great speeds, now with nearly double that number they are slowing down. The poster child for speed is usually sprint where they have rolled out their 3xCA EBS\BRS network although that speed is usually only evident during offpeak hours.

I know they love to boast of having the best everything here but with cell service it just isnt the case. Things are improving but not quickly. Use is outstripping capacity expansion and valuable spectrum is tied up supporting legacy (less spectrally efficient) technologies.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon