Comments on: T-Mobile 7.2 Mbps HSPA Testing in my Backyard

By: Ray

Ray — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:42:24 +0000

A city-wide 4G WiMax based service hasn’t hit my town yet, so I can’t comment on what a TOS might contain or what the eventual cost may be. Of course, 4G isn’t what we’re talking about here.

The issue for carriers is that HSPA is applied to the existing cell tower network, so while an individual under idea circumstances might enjoy improved transfer speeds, the overall capacity of the network remains the same. We’re already familiar with 3G congestion in crowded urban areas where those using existing 3G technology rarely get the advertised rates. HSPA will not improve the situation.

The carriers response for too much demand for a scarce resource has been primarily to reduce demand. Caps are one aspect of that.

So why a rush to HSPA? Well the higher speeds do look better in commercials and print…

By: tivoboy

tivoboy — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:18:49 +0000

4g type services are not posting CAPS, so they could in effect be not limited.

By: Ray

Ray — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:22:03 +0000

So lets do the calculation, shall we? (So few blogs do this …)

If you carrier TOS states the typical 5GB/month data cap, 7.2Mbps translates to 94.8 minutes of download a month (assuming you could actually obtain that rate for a sustained period of time which is very unlikely.)

The point is while peak transfer rate is important (definitely good for advertising), the actual amount of data a carrier will allow you download or upload in a given time frame and the cost is probably more important to most users most of the time.

By: tivoboy

tivoboy — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:57:15 +0000

be sure to bang things like sustained upload speeds and download speeds. I am out in the field a lot and upload literally GIGS of high megapixel photos to a shared store for others to get access to. I really want a faster sustained upload and download speed for this.