Can 4G wireless take on traditional broadband?

jmacavali

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Clearwire's 4G WiMax service, currently the only 4G wireless service on the market, offers average download speeds between 3Mbps and 6Mbps, which are comparable with many DSL and cable modem services on the market.

....Clearwire's chief commercial officer, Mike Sievert, said during the company's fourth-quarter 2009 earnings call last month that roughly half of the company's subscribers are using its new Clear brand 4G wireless broadband service as a replacement for DSL and cable modem services.

Indeed, other 4G wireless services will offer similar speeds to those offered today from Clearwire. Verizon Wireless is building its own 4G network using a technology called LTE and is expected to launch the service in 25 to 30 markets by the end of the year. It claims that the average download speeds it has seen in its test networks are between 6Mbps and 12Mbps.

Just as people fell in love with the idea of being able to talk on the phone wherever they were with a cell phone, it won't take long before people will also begin to appreciate accessing broadband anywhere and everywhere. Once mobile broadband becomes ubiquitous, it's easy to see how some of these people may decide to stop paying for two broadband services, much like many cell phone users decided to get rid of their home phones.
To be fair, wireless-only broadband will not appeal to every consumer, especially ones who consume a lot of bandwidth. Because of the physical limitations of any wireless service, it will never keep pace with the super-fast speeds of services delivered on fiber networks. Therefore, 4G wireless will never satisfy the needs of the most bandwidth-hungry users.
 
It isn't going to be that speed when it becomes popular. Remember when 3G came out and it was uber fast? Where I live, EDGE is almost faster because the 3G towers are so overloaded.
 
Soon as people start tethering and torrenting. Nah, It's like a 1 connection supporting a city. Soon as people starting raping it theres not going to be much left of that bandwidth to go around
 
It isn't necessarily tethering that kills it, it is when it goes completely mainstream and there simply are not enough towers to support even regular usage such as web browsing.

My EDGE iPhone continues to get faster and faster while everyone else's 3G phones just get slower.

And I save $15 a month by having EDGE instead of 3G.
 
It isn't necessarily tethering that kills it, it is when it goes completely mainstream and there simply are not enough towers to support even regular usage such as web browsing.

My EDGE iPhone continues to get faster and faster while everyone else's 3G phones just get slower.

And I save $15 a month by having EDGE instead of 3G.

The whole debate on 3G performance is really dependent on the area. You're right that in the major city's the networks are more congested than they are in places with less density.

4G is being run with fiber where the majority of 3G is run by a single T-1 per tower sector.

I believe that much like 3G, 4G will be a great solution for those of us in more remote locations. I live in an area that it's either 3G, Satellite or Dial Up. Comcast cable stops serving 4 miles from my home and Verizon's DSL service is about 5 miles out. I've been a retail request person for Verizon in my free time trying to get enough people to sign 1 year contracts to get Verizon in my "zone" with little success.

This is where 4G is really going to shine outside of the larger cities. People that don't have access to fast cable and are stuck on 3G, Satellite or slow DSL. I'm looking forward to Verizon's LTE deployment at the end of the year but know it'll probably be another year before I get LTE in my area. But in all likely hood that will be my only real option for faster broadband because the whole FCC plan is looking like a joke.

Thankfully my account is unlimited since I signed up quite a while ago or else 3G wouldn't even be an option for me with a 5GB limit. It works for most things I do, although I wish I had faster access so I could download faster.

My 3G Verizon U727 (Home PC)
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My 3G iPhone
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I'm pretty happy with the performance from both although more speed is always welcome :D
 
Absynthhaze, or whatever your username is lol, why don't you just tether your iPhone? According to AT&Ts terms of service, streaming video to the iPhone over 3G is not allowed because the consider it a computer, and they changed terms for computers to reflect this, so therefore, you can use this against them because their computer terms of service allow sharing of bandwidth.
 
It isn't going to be that speed when it becomes popular. Remember when 3G came out and it was uber fast? Where I live, EDGE is almost faster because the 3G towers are so overloaded.

And because of these heavy traffic loads on its overburdened 3G network, AT&T is encouraging all its iPhone subscribers to access its more than 20,000 Wi-Fi hot spots for free. The hope is that the company can offload some of the traffic onto the Wi-Fi network by encouraging subscribers to use Wi-Fi for data-intensive activities when they're in range of a hot spot. ...... Even as carriers roll out 4G wireless networks, Wi-Fi will still have a place because it can offer fast Internet access at a relatively low cost for many devices.
From HERE.
 
Haze, your names matt? sweet! lol

Yep, I'm assuming your names Matt too? I used to have it as part of my SN here but changed it after I create a Live & PSN ID to match that.

Absynthhaze, or whatever your username is lol, why don't you just tether your iPhone? According to AT&Ts terms of service, streaming video to the iPhone over 3G is not allowed because the consider it a computer, and they changed terms for computers to reflect this, so therefore, you can use this against them because their computer terms of service allow sharing of bandwidth.

I do use my iPhone to tether to my Macbook Pro when I'm out and about. At home I don't have 3G service from them though. As a matter of fact I couldn't get Verizon's 3G service to work at my home until I bought a parabolic grid antenna, setup a 20 foot antenna mast outside, purchased some really high grade ultra low loss cable and a direct connect 3watt cellular amplifier. As a matter of fact I even have a 45ft tower sitting in my backyard. I just haven't got around to buying guy wire and installing it.

Ya, I'm a geek and I've got at least $500 in equipment to get a signal and share it between all my hardware. It's freaking sick but I'm glad I spent it because if I was still on dial up I'd have probably went nuts by now. A few of my neighbors have satellite and they aren't particularly happy with it at all. It wasn't even an option for me though because of the ping times. At least I can play games with my 3G connection. Not the greatest ping in the world and I know I'm at a disadvantage but the lag isn't to noticeable.
 
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