Hello! And welcome to our Friday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
A few weeks ago I held in my possession the future of the wireless world, and I have to say I was unimpressed with how little it weighed. I always figured something of such gravitas would have some heft to it, but I now realize that in the future everything will weigh less – except people.
That future I held was a pair of devices, each of which with the capabilities to access the most state-of-the-art wireless technology currently known, and as I will explain, a technology that for now remains out of the reach for many.
The future was in the form of HTC’s Thunderbolt device, which includes access to Verizon Wireless’ LTE network, and HTC’s Evo 4G device, which can exchange 1’s and 0’s with Sprint Nextel/Clearwire’s WiMAX network. Despite what should have been a hostile nature between the two devices, having them both in my possession was a rather tranquil moment with neither showing any real hostility towards the other. In fact, they both sort of looked alike and even were able to share a charger. How pleasant. Maybe the future won’t be such a bad place.
I was hoping to use this chance encounter to test the network speeds provided by these advanced devices running on these advanced networks, a test that I was also hoping would provide some fireworks.
The real fireworks began, however, when I fired up both devices expecting to be blown away by the “4G” speeds I was going to witness. I mean, from watching all of the wireless carrier commercials touting the wonder and awe that is 4G, I was expecting to literally be blown out of my socks.
However, that expected sock blowing turned out to be a dud as neither device could provide a “4G” signal. What the!?!
Sure, I was inside of my house, but as with most houses built over the past 30 years, the construction of my dwelling is more paperboard and stuffing than concrete and bricks. And yet I was still without a 4G signal.
I then checked the coverage for both networks and according to those handy-dandy online maps, I realized that by some cosmic quirk of nature my house managed to occupy a space on the fringe of coverage for both carriers’ 4G networks. There was plenty of coverage for my neighbor across the street who always has to one-up everyone with his over-the-top holiday displays, as well as my neighbor next door who for the life of me I can’t figure out how he keeps his lawn so green. But for me, nothing. I really could not have planned it any better.
This fringe-ness was verified as when I moved closer to a window of my house – also made of paperboard and stuffing – both devices magically managed to alight with a 4G signal. I guess those coverage maps are pretty accurate after all.
But, then I asked to no one in particular: “Why should this be a fringe area?”
Now, I will admit that I don’t live in a downtown metropolis that carriers like to bathe their new networks with as it allows them to cover maximum pops for marketing purposes with a minimum of towers. (A deployment model expertly used by NextWave Wireless back in the day to maintain control over its spectrum licenses with the minimalist of actual network costs.)
I could see if I lived in some tree house in the middle of a forest, or on some canoe in the middle of a lake, but I at least think I live in a typical, suburban environment surrounded by manicured parks, multiple coffee shops and a smattering of red-and-green restaurants. Plus, the maps did seem to indicate I should be able to pull down a signal, even if it was fringe-y.
And, if anyone has seen any of the recent wireless commercials, and with how often those run I can’t see how that is not possible, you would think that 4G was the new standard for wireless networks and should be available wherever a wireless signal is available.
Of course, all of these commercials also have the fine print claiming 4G coverage is still limited, but how am I supposed to notice that when I am too busy looking at lightning bolts, scantily clad men and women, harry skiers and people living in some futuristic desert landscape? How is anyone supposed to get past that?
Maybe I should just be glad that I have any coverage at all, even if to use that coverage I had to move all of my furniture next to one window in my house. I probably needed to redecorate anyway.
Now for those of you hung up on numbers, when I did manage to get a 4G signal the Thunderbolt provided download speeds of around 3.5 megabits per second with upload speeds often in excess of 20 Mbps. Freaky fast.
For the Evo 4G, download speeds were somewhat erratic with some as high as 4.6 Mbps, while others dipped to around 1.3 Mbps. Upload speeds were much more stable hovering around 1 Mbps, with only the occasional dip to around 150 kilobits per second.
For those more averse to “numbers” and “facts,” I will say that when 4G was available, both devices were able to download content and access Internet sites much quicker than when on the more ubiquitous 3G networks. Though, for those that spend most of their time interacting with their mobile devices by throwing birds at shoddily built fortresses, that speed difference may not be noticeable.
As for continuing to test the future, I plan next week to move this process to the real/fake metropolis that is Las Vegas that will be hosting both myself and the annual Rural Cellular Associations trade show. Though instead of testing pure network speeds, I plan to use my time testing how much content I can download at a craps table before I get a) thrown out, or b) lose all my money. Let’s hope those results don’t result in me losing my socks.
OK, enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. And now for some extras:
–If you happened to miss RCR Wireless News’ Tracy Ford comparison between the recent CTIA and National Association of Broadcasters trade shows, well shame on you. There are pictures?
–And finally, this is just good:
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at dmeyer@ardenmedia.com.
