Comments on: When will LTE stop sucking (your battery)?

By: Karu

Karu — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 08:31:12 +0000

Guess we are not changing 3G to 4G just for fun. I see LTE a first good communication standard for a mobile device really.
Parameters I count are:
1. Operation quality when mobile device is moving 150km/h on the ground.
2. Latency (roundtrip time spend ie. ping)
3. Data rate

2G is failing all of these. 3G is failing 1.) and 2.).
LTE is good foor all of these.
3G is especially failing 2. which really degrades the browsing speed & experience badly. Times vary 100ms –> second. 4G should have always below 100ms, typically 10-50ms roundtrip. The data rate in 3G is typically good enough already to do anything, but 3G modulation is not really optimized for high ground speeds and suffers from Doppler effect still (2G very badly)

By: Khürt Williams 

Khürt Williams  — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 01:51:11 +0000

Matt, you are correct. Current cellular radio technology was designed to be used outdoors. Now that we are all replacing our landlines with cell phone means that the carrier need to rethink their strategy.

By: Dave Madel

Dave Madel — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:08:23 +0000

Dunno, with LTE it’s always a problem. on my galaxy nexus i can only solve battery issue with my 2000mah Mugen Power battery

By: Bjorn

Bjorn — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:43:08 +0000

Voice over LTE will most likely be based on GAN (i.e. VoLGA) which has been around for Wi-Fi for some time. So the day LTE has voice it will be trivial to add it for Wi-Fi.

Wi-Fi is getting more seamless as well with authentication against the SIM card, called EAP-SIM and EAP-AKA.

In general I would say the chances of battery life improvements are significantly higher for Wi-Fi than for LTE, mostly because of physics: shorter distance between sender/receiver means higher bit rate and lower power. Of course, if you had the same density of LTE femtos that would work but it’s very unlikely to happen.

By: Luscious

Luscious — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:52:27 +0000

I have to agree. My Clear Apollo 4G mobile hotspot can stream video and audio for hours on end – yet that’s only possible thanks to the unlimited data plan that comes with it. I solved my power issues by getting a small external battery.

By: justin

justin — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:45:05 +0000

I have a 4g phone and after the first week of enjoying how fast LTE is, I have it set to 3g-only so that I can have 24 hour battery life again.
4G is nice for streaming video and such, but for background email and other notifications, everything arrives in the same time. I’m not going to be bothered turning it on every time I want more than a simple webpage so at the end of the day, I wish that my Galaxy Nexus had an alternative option sans LTE that was cheaper. I don’t see myself ever turning 4g back on because of the battery life.

By: rick gregory

rick gregory — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:24:31 +0000

I guess I still can’t get excited about LTE. All of the illustrations of how it rocks for me are things like streaming video and I always think to myself “On a 2gig/month plan??”. Aside from the new, shiny, fastest crowd I’m not sure I see any real world benefits to LTE or other very fast connections given the tradeoff in battery life and the limitations of bandwidth in the current data plans.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:03:33 +0000

WiFi uses more power? Then why is WiFi browsing in a smartphone always last longer?

By: Matt Liotta

Matt Liotta — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:26:38 +0000

It is time for the carriers to get serious about femtocells. The majority of smartphone usage occurs at home or work. Followed closely by retail business locations. All three are easily addressed by femtocells. No need to waste power on a stronger transmission multiplied over MIMO when your device is close to a femtocell.

Many would argue that Wi-Fi does this as well, but they are wrong. First, Wi-Fi uses even more power than 3G and 4G data technologies. Second, femtocells provide a more seamless transition than Wi-Fi ensuring greater utilization. Finally, Wi-Fi has no hope of offering mobile voice whereas LTE is planned to have voice in the not to distant future.