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Reliability Trumps Speed in LTE

11:05 AM Chicago is becoming a 4G city with AT&T's LTE showing up, but the hand-off from LTE to 3G will be just as important as speed in the early days
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NetworkOptimizer
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Wednesday August 31, 2011 2:27:11 PM
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It look the equipment vendors a long time to stabilize the handoff functionality between different 3G base stations. Now, adding another access technology to it will make things more messy. I would assume it would be a very patchy hand-offs (especially a large scale hand-off with multiple users) for the first year before the operators/equipment provides takes this real data and optimize their network.

 

For most part, web browsing should be OK as the users will not see any difference. Skype call/video call is another story.

I would assume that the operators are still using their 3G/2G for voice. So, voice will not be affected even when data moves from 4G to 3G, and especially tablets this is not an issue.

Chomsky
User Ranking
Wednesday August 31, 2011 2:24:37 PM
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You're right, but I fear locking customers into contracts is more important than offering good service.

SReedy
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Wednesday August 31, 2011 12:25:17 PM
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Think HSPA+ would help that, or is it just the actual act of handing off that's going to throw the network off?

Dan Jones
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Wednesday August 31, 2011 12:23:44 PM
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Was hearing some murmurs about LTE hand-off not being so hot at high-speeds. Wouldn't be terribly surprising 3G can still be spotty in that respect.

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