Re: Fastest Mobile Networks 2021

On 10/5/2021 10:16 AM, Alan Browne wrote:
> On 2021-10-05 02:51, Joerg Lorenz wrote:
>> Am 05.10.21 um 08:38 schrieb NewsKrawler:
>>> Fastest Mobile Networks 2021
>>> https://www.pcmag.com/news/fastest-mobile-networks-2021
>>>
>>> For our 12th annual test, we drove more than 10,000 miles, speed-testing
>>> AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon 4G and 5G in cities, towns, and rural 
>>> regions
>>> all over the US. We found a radically new landscape−and a surprising 
>>> winner.
>>
>> That is utter bullshit and at best a tiny little bit of anecdotal 
>> evidence.
> 
> Given their test method and presented data it is certainly not anecdotal.

Correct. Joerg is wrong of course™.

Remember, they were testing speed, not coverage. T-Mobile has made a big 
effort to roll out their low-band 5G service on their existing 4G LTE cells.

Verizon had sufficiently high 4G LTE speeds that low-band 5G was a lower 
priority. Verizon is making a big push with mmWave 5G in order to enter 
the home broadband and IOT markets, probably because their market 
research has shown that few customers really care about the difference 
between 4G LTE and 5G low-band speeds.

Look at <https://www.tomsguide.com/features/5g-vs-4g>. T-Mobile's 5G 
speed is about 6% faster than Verizon's 5G speed, but Verizon's LTE 
speed is 68% faster than T-Mobile's LTE speed. T-Mobile's 5G speed is 
33% faster than Verizon's LTE speed.

T-Mobile and AT&T needed 5G a lot more urgently than Verizon because 
their LTE speeds were so slow, even though practically speaking, going 
from 36.3 Mb/s (T-Mobile LTE) to 71 Mb/s (T-Mobile 5G) would not be 
noticed by many users except if they are running a speed test or 
downloading some very large files.

The big advantage of 5G, for the carriers, is an increase in capacity. 
For the end-users, in capacity-constrained areas, 5G users free up LTE 
capacity so even those without 5G phones benefit, without the power 
consumption impact of 5G.

In terms of marketing, T-Mobile can boast about having the most 5G 
coverage, while not having to talk about total coverage.