When is 4G not 4G?

Xbigman

I'm wondering if anyone can shed some light on my situation?

I dumped Virgin Media 2 months ago and went over to a 4G dongle.
With EE's data sim prices jumping from £14 to £20 I've now tried Three. Now EE's signal in my area is poor. 1 or 2 bars 4G and speeds from 10 to 20Mbps.
Three's signal is weaker. So weak I can't get 4g but I can get 5 bars of 3G running at 4Mbps. But the 3G signal, although slower is more consistent with less of the annoying 'waiting for...' messages I get with 4G.

My question is this; is 5 bars of 3G really as good as 1 to 2 bars of 4G?



Darren

paddyrg

Bars are an artificial measure, so what you're comparing is actually LTE (4G) vs HSPA(+) (3.5G), and HSPA is actually really very good, and is getting better as more users move onto LTE. I run my office on a 3G dongle, more than good enough. Indeed HSPA+ can use dual signals to get very 4G-like performance, albeit slightly less efficiently.

Short version, you're doing alright ;-)

S0litaire

Yup my "Three" 3G cell tower a few hundred meters from me used to give me 4G speeds when ever I've clear line of sight to it.

Even though Three Customer service used to swear blind that it's only a 3G tower and would not be upgraded till the start of 2017. They officially upgraded the towers to 4G a few months later...

Since hardly anyone in my area is on Three, I get great speeds (i.e. nearly perfect 4G speeds) during "peak" times. lol

50Twuncle

Xbigman wrote: »

I'm wondering if anyone can shed some light on my situation?

I dumped Virgin Media 2 months ago and went over to a 4G dongle.
With EE's data sim prices jumping from £14 to £20 I've now tried Three. Now EE's signal in my area is poor. 1 or 2 bars 4G and speeds from 10 to 20Mbps.
Three's signal is weaker. So weak I can't get 4g but I can get 5 bars of 3G running at 4Mbps. But the 3G signal, although slower is more consistent with less of the annoying 'waiting for...' messages I get with 4G.

My question is this; is 5 bars of 3G really as good as 1 to 2 bars of 4G?

Darren

Try measuring it using speedtest.net
I get a steady 30Mbps download and 15Mbps upload on 4G
And less than 1/10 of this on 3G - Both good signals (3 bars)

Cycrow

Also remember that 4G operates at multiple frequencies, which can vary the speed

lower frequencies give better range, and a better signal overall, but at a slower speed.

HSPA isn't that far from 4G speedwise

AndyPix

Cycrow wrote: »

HSPA isn't that far from 4G speedwise

Hmm .


HSPA ~ 10 meg
Im clocking 37.5 meg on my 4G here with 4/5 bars

kwikbreaks

Yes I found that my 4G speed even with a not-too-good signal of 1-2 bars knocks spots off a full bars 3G signal. I'm using MiFi type devices - the 3G one is on a fairly expensive external square panel antenna and the 4G is using one of the cheap two cable square panels (eBay) stuck onto the window. I think the 4G must be on 700MHz as the expensive 3G panel doesn't work well with it being designed for 1800-2100MHz.