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Any carrier would tell you that their first 4G LTE phase is far from being the last. While current LTE performance is quite delectable on most carriers, the technology is so good that there is still massive room for improvement. Said improvement can come in a way that’s easily scalable at the tower level, and it won’t take a massive difference in both site and cellular technology for users to begin to reap the benefits.
With Verizon pretty much finished with their initial LTE rollout, it looks like the nation’s largest carrier is getting ready to enter phase 2. GigaOM is reporting a series of speed tests on a certain Verizon tower in NYC that is clocking the network at up to 80 megabits per second down and 15 megabits up.
It’s suggested Verizon is testing their new upgrades on a full 40MHz of spectrum, which should theoretically allow max speeds of 150 megabits. That the user was able to pull down just 80 megabits could be explained by a couple of different things:
- Verizon is limiting bandwidth speeds themselves.
- The current deployment is not yet powerful enough to push further toward the high end of that “theoretical” number.
Whatever the case may be, it’s also worth noting that networks tend to do much better when there aren’t many people on them. Think back to the days where Verizon and AT&T first deployed LTE — users enjoyed as much as 40-50 megabits, but these days they’re lucky enough if they can hit 20, what with all the congestion they have to deal with.
These upgrades should help alleviate some of that congestion, and should prove to be just one of many key long-term moves Verizon needs to ensure their reputation for network quality remains unblemished. We’re not even sure how far away we are from seeing any official launch of these enhancements, but it’s nice to know that they’re working on it.
Attention customers, we have decided to double our prices. Thank you, Verizon Wireless.
Meanwhile I’ve been getting mid 50s on AT&T for the past year. I won’t complain.
At this point, I’m not sure anything could keep me on Verizon. My GNex contract is up in December and I’m going back to T-Mobile to rock the N5.
I am sure N5 will be my go to phone as well. I get to leave sprint so I will finally get good data speeds where I spend most of my days (currently around 0.24mbps down). Off contract seems to be the best option if you don’t want to spend a ridiculous amount of money per month.
I got something that keeps me on.. My discount! Feels like being on the cheaper companies with extra perks.
I don’t like you because you have discounts. You’ve mentioned this before. If I could get some 10GB plan the same price as Tmo, I’d be all on Verizon… eh… never mind. I wouldn’t.
I change phones too often. And GSM phones have better dev support. Never mind. I’d hate the experience. LoL!!
Tbh, that’s the only snag. The lack of phones on big red. Hurts my soul sometime.
I’m with you. I’m dropping Verizon and switching back to T-Mobile once the Nexus 5 launches.
I was getting 67/20 when VZW first implemented LTE here. Now I average 35/10. I’ve no complaints.
How about getting half this speed to be the norm on there network? My dad has Verizon, and he averages 10~15mb. They need a more consistent network. There are customer’s in other places besides New york and Manhattan.
i average 18 in miami, and never got above 5 and averaged about 3 in new york on verizon they need more towers and higher speeds to make up for the congestion and terrible geography
WTF!? 10-15MB is actually good.
*First world problems*
Haha, yeah, maybe it is. But it’s hardly the image that they want (inconsistent network).
I might be spoiled when it comes to Internet speed (my wifi averages 25mbs), but that still feels slow for what I do. I want a utopia of equal speed, or, at least, decent speeds.
mobile speeds will always fluctuate, no matter what technology they invent, too many variables.
Signal quality, number of current users and the total load on the tower. There actually isn’t much if anything that people do on smartphones that is going to show considerable performance differences at 10 – 15mbps, at that point all that matters for most apps is latency on mobile applications.
I hope this is true. We NEED more bandwidth.
My office is a block from Grand Central and everyone is lucky to get 50Kb/s (i’m not exaggerating) due to so much congestion. Signal goes between LTE, 3G and 2G. When everything empties out at the end of the day, or elsewhere in the city, 20Mb/s LTE is commonplace.
We need more bandwidth but the net neutrality people seem to think it magically grows from trees for free.
because blocking websites who refuse to be extorted for priority access (or any access at all for that matter) is totally gonna fix everything.
and the data costs will remain the same…..
I love verizon…but the data rates are aweful….
If they remain the same consider urself lucky. Im sure verizon will demand more $ for this improvement.
out n the outskrts of aurora CO a very lightly used tower and nothing but a corn field and a wall seperating me from the tower
You just wasted about 32MB of data to show us this. =.3
But the fact that you can be out in the middle of nowhere living next to Courage The Cowardly Dog and still have good speeds is actually pretty good. I just can’t live without my unlimited. =.[
Odd, I’m near a lightly used tower myself outside of Madison, WI and routinely get 50-60 Mbps.
What’s the point? Unless you are grandfathered, you are limited to a tiny allotment of data.
Everything you do now loads/downloads faster. Sounds good to me. If you’re an addict, that’s your problem :)
With 2gb – 3gb a month, that pretty much makes video out of the question. For everything else, would you really notice a difference between 20 and 80mbps?
Yes, it is a measurement of speed of data transfer, not of the quantity of data. The faster your browser/app receives the data, the faster it can load it.
Only to the limit of perceptibility of the human attention span.
Reasonable acceptable speed is probably in the area of 5-10 mbit/sec. Beyond that, most people don’t care.
Yes, and at a certain point the limiting factor of your “quality of experience” is not your bandwidth, but your processing power.
What he is saying is after about 3-4 mbps, the only noticeable improvement in web browsing comes from ping times.
I completely agree! If faster DL speeds ruins your life.. your just bad at Life!
Even if you’re grandfathered, you get throttled after a set amount of usage.
Nope! If you have a 4G device on Verizon’s network they don’t throttle you ever unless you fallback to 3G and have used more than 2 GB’s of data that month and are on a tower that is experiencing heavy usage.
I second this
sweet … zero to data cap in 25 seconds
I ain’t complaining as long as I’m on my unlimited plan.
Only if you suddenly watch movies or listen to music faster.
yeah.. except a 500 mb movie is still a 500 mb movie no matter how fast you download it.
Download ALL the ROMs!! =.D
So do I need a new phone or will my current phone adapt right away?
Everyone in NY just got brain cancer.
I’ve been told that the broadband provided to each tower in East Texas is a gig through put, so I’d say the technology is already there. Think I’m usually at 30mb on average and 50 if I hold my left leg over my head.
Tbobo who?
I’m looking for a good wife, do you have any for sale?
It’s nice to see companies upgrading their networks but companies like verizon and at&t only kill the experience with there data caps. I mean who wants to be restricted streaming their favorite shows or downloading a movie, game or whatever.
And then they still advertise using WiFi to save battery. =.=
80 megabits per second, so you run out of your 2 gb of data in one week instead of two. Yipee!
speed has nothing to do with amount. if you DL a 5mb file 8x faster it doesnt mean youre gonna use up your data 8x faster
Very true, but you’ll be able to get through more cat videos while waiting for the bus, the wife, the nexus 5, etc.
lol
I lol’ed @ Nexus 5
This is only if you download files.
Still have poor 3G service on my street in suburban NJ
wait, you mean New Jersey? that place is real?? I’m in CA and in our text books here there is just a black blob where NJ would be…wow, who new?
And what purpose is 40,50,…80mbps, when Verizon limits you to a measly 3gb/mo???
That’s why I just went on T-mobile’s $70 plan, I get the fast speeds and really unlimited data. I was streaming a dr who episode the other day waiting somewhere, reminds me of why I enjoyed smartphones so much when they first came out.
The fun is back for me :) I forgot how much I stopped actually using my smartphone for fear of the cap when I went to teired data.
Before you attack me, I know T-mobile’s coverage isn’t for everyone, but in NJ it’s really perfectly acceptable I always have at least HSPA+ and 95% of the time LTE in my area.
Think of it this way, if everyone was on unlimited data then they would throttle all of us.. and those of us with unlimited wouldn’t feel so OP. You people on limited data help us out tremendously! Thank you for not going over your cap :) Come again!
LoL!! Do you realize what you do with these speed test? The faster your data, the more you pull. It’s not going to test for 1 second. It’s going to test for like 5 seconds.
So based on your picture, I’d say your average was 79MB. So that’s 79 * 5 = 395MB every test. Then you did 6 test, so that’s 2.37GB.
You would have hit your cap on one of Verizon’s plans. =.=
Yea, all that speed is useless. They just WANT people to hit them caps. LoL!!
IDK… Doing the math always makes me laugh.
Someone needs to learn the difference between megabits and megabytes…
I want to go sit in a dark corner by myself. You are right. That is a little ‘B’.
Every 8Mb is 1MB. So that’s just 10MB per second. No where near what my math was trying to prove. LoL!!
Its easy for some of these other garbage networks to offer 50+ mb/s when they only have half the customers of Verizon. And I’m sure if tmo or sprint were half the size of big red they would get rid of unlimited data too. They know however given their lack of network quality offering unlimited data is like offering candy to a 2 year old and its the only way they will get customers. I get 35-40 mb/s on vzw and can feel comfortable leaving town without dropping signal everywhere I go.
Verizon must send you a check every month, or at least give you free service. If they’re not, then you gotta work on getting it all in.. relax your throat!
ERMARGARD! NERXURS!
I routinely hit 40-45 mbps on Tmobile LTE on my Nexus 4 in my apartment.
Too bad the rest of the LTE towers in NYC seem to be over crowded. MY LTE speeds are only 2-5mbps and it drops a lot on my S4 and Droid Ultra. The good thing about having so many people on LTE is that my phones 3G speed has never been faster.
Too bad it still takes me 10 minutes to download the 11MB speedtest app….. overcrowded midtown towers on verizon are AWFUL!
After finally downloading speedtest is showing me 0.96 down and 0.23 up on 4G in midtown. Hope I get the above mentioned towers sooner than later. Might try Tmobile soon I hear its a bit better.
This is awesome news… I’m a tower climber and the more LTE upgrades the better and Verizon. is the best to work on.