Almost 50% of U.S. Consumers Don't Think They Need 4G LTE According to Survey

[Krennel]

This is such a flawed statement, just because you have faster download does not mean you have to burn through your cap faster then if you were on 3G with a cap. You load the same amount of data in either case, 4G just allows you to see the page faster. I suppose if you read articles on your way to work every day(assume you take a subway train and are not dirving and reading of course) you might go through it slightly faster because the time saved loading pages will allow you to, on average, read 1 or 2 more articles more then usual. However, cosnidering you are only going to chew through a few MBs per page, I highly doubt you will chew through a data cap significantly faster. Now if you use bittorrent downloads, for example, over 3G/4G thats another story. Then you will of course eat through the cap quicker, but under typical conditions, I don;t buy this argument. Now I am not advocating data caps, atleast not when we are talking such small data margins as a few GB which is nothing in todays world. When 56K Modems(and the wireless equivalent) were around, that was another story, but in a world of netflix to go, 2GB is ludicrous for some one who travels alot.

If all I wanted to do was load pages, I would have not made that statement. Yes, loading pages is faster. From my calculations between my Dinc2 and my work Rezound, both with full signal, I load pages .325 seconds faster on my Rezound, on average. I usually see a second difference loading maps on Gmaps between the two, and my email retrieves faster. Great, that is awesome, sure, I might be able to load a couple more articles or download documents in the time I may have on a public commuter service. And yes, it is faster. However, with just that you have just barely scratched the surface of what a 4G capable device can do. But for your average user, that is all you need.

My statement was more to the fact that because of data caps, many other wonderful things that you can do with your phone on the go are rendered null and void after a certain point. Even things that Verizon and AT&T advertise, like video chatting, video streaming, any sort of cloud based storage, are made useless by data caps. My company has a Dropbox account, and even though they have a business style 20GB cap on my Rezound, when my average file(software firm) is between 500mb and 2GB, it becomes a hassle if I am on the road.

 

[jroc]

I do agree about the data caps. Using Netflix on 3G vs. 4G... I used more data on 4G for about the same amount of usage. Same for using YouTube.

I think for Netflix, less buffering, higher quality streams meant more data used.

I found out quick 2GB wasn't enough for me. 10GB is just barely enough for me.

 

[lights]

I don't know why this is a surprise to anyone. I have no use for 4G. I won't pay extra for it, although we all do in the increased costs of our service. I check weather, browse a couple forums, get email, and might do limited research on my phone. These are all things I can do with satisfactory speeds on 3G coverage. For a tablet, sure 4G LTE makes sense, but I'm always using my tablet on a wireless connection, which is almost everywhere I want to use it; home, coffee shop, sandwich shop, rest stop, etc.

 

[geoff5093]

I don't know why this is a surprise to anyone. I have no use for 4G. I won't pay extra for it, although we all do in the increased costs of our service. I check weather, browse a couple forums, get email, and might do limited research on my phone. These are all things I can do with satisfactory speeds on 3G coverage. For a tablet, sure 4G LTE makes sense, but I'm always using my tablet on a wireless connection, which is almost everywhere I want to use it; home, coffee shop, sandwich shop, rest stop, etc.

By that mindset why should the carriers have ever upgraded from 1X? Apps get larger, websites have more multimedia content, photos are larger, videos stream at a higher bitrate, basically everything you do on your phone requires more data as years go on. In 2-3 years we will be saying to ourselves, how did we get by at just 3G speeds?

 

[dsteinschneider]

By that mindset why should the carriers have ever upgraded from 1X?

That statement isn't valid. 1X is 56K modem speed - 3G is DSL speed. The real (and perceived) difference is huge. The faster 4G loading of web pages or maps is a nice-to-have. Last month I was throttled while on vacation because we were using the phone as a router in a vacation house - 1X is really slow. What's helped tremendously in 4G is off limits due to caps. No one should be scratching their head over the results of the survey. If carriers want us to get excited about a faster network they need to exponentially raise the data caps.

I'm a "smartphone" enthusiast going back to the times when people stared at us using our Treos but I'm hanging with my 2 1/2 year old DX running Vortex because it operates smoothly and does well everything I need it to.

When faced with caps I simply cease using anything but the necessities (web, email, low data apps, maps etc).

 

[lights]

By that mindset why should the carriers have ever upgraded from 1X? Apps get larger, websites have more multimedia content, photos are larger, videos stream at a higher bitrate, basically everything you do on your phone requires more data as years go on. In 2-3 years we will be saying to ourselves, how did we get by at just 3G speeds?

Not really. It depends on you use your phone. I don't like to do much on a very small screen. I use my laptop for heavier consumption. While I know a few that do use it heavily, most don't.

 

[PereDroid]

Sure, webpages get larger with more multimedia content... I don't really go to those sites on my phone.
So many sites have mobile versions now. They are going to stop developing those.

I check forums... with an app, that makes it much easier, smaller and faster.

Any serious surfing is done on my laptop of Wifi tablet.

Sorry. But with data caps and other bulls--- Verizon keeps pulling I will continue to find ways to use LESS data. Not more.
You got your wish VZW...

 

[geoff5093]

That statement isn't valid. 1X is 56K modem speed - 3G is DSL speed. The real (and perceived) difference is huge. The faster 4G loading of web pages or maps is a nice-to-have. Last month I was throttled while on vacation because we were using the phone as a router in a vacation house - 1X is really slow. What's helped tremendously in 4G is off limits due to caps. No one should be scratching their head over the results of the survey. If carriers want us to get excited about a faster network they need to exponentially raise the data caps.

I'm a "smartphone" enthusiast going back to the times when people stared at us using our Treos but I'm hanging with my 2 1/2 year old DX running Vortex because it operates smoothly and does well everything I need it to.

When faced with caps I simply cease using anything but the necessities (web, email, low data apps, maps etc).

It's not 56Kbps, it's more like ~150Kbps, compared to 3G of 1-1.5Mbps. Going from 1Mbps to 25Mbps is a pretty big jump (these are the speeds I see around here for 3G and LTE). Even if you don't need the speed itself, 4G is a better technology that results in a lower latency, which allows webpages and anything else data-related to load quicker.

I can perceive the difference between 4G and 3G myself. If my phone says I have updates, most of the apps are 5-10MB, so instead of taking minutes to download it only takes several seconds. If I want to reload my Twitter feed, it's twice as fast on 4G.

Not really. It depends on you use your phone. I don't like to do much on a very small screen. I use my laptop for heavier consumption. While I know a few that do use it heavily, most don't.

I don't see how you are saying my statement is false.

 

[nomadh]

Why shouldn't people be allowed to comment???? I understand that people shouldn't give uninformed opinion, which may cause others to be misinformed....but not to be able to comment??

I asked questions, trying to understand the benefits of upgrading.....so.....data is faster over 4G than 3G, does that matter if the only data use on my phone is over high speed, broadband, wifi??? Nope......4G's higher data speed would be irrelevant in my case.

In my case I seldom (if ever) use data over 3G and my habits wouldn't change much if I upgraded to 4G. I'm NOT going to replace my 20+mbps fiber optic broadband service with a 4G mobile hotspot generated by my cell phone (which would have data caps).

I asked the question "What will 4G do for me??".......I got several answers having to do with faster data speeds, which is meaningless for me since I seldom (if ever) use my cell phone for data (when it's not connected to broadband, high speed, wifi).

I wish I would have gotten more answers like the one about being able to utilize data and voice at the same time.....but everyone seems focused on data speed. If I was to change my "behavior" and started using the hell out of data on my cell phone.....I'd be in favor of keeping my 3G, unlimited data plan over upgrading to a 4G phone/plan with data caps.

I doubt this conversation would be happening at all if most of the providers hadn't changed the rules of the game at "half time". What is the benefit of faster data speed if my data is rationed???? If I was already hitting a data cap with 3G, I'd just hit it twice (or more) as fast on 4G LOL.

This is almost the same discussion I see about what good it does to move to a dual core or quad core processor as long as those processors eat batteries twice or four times as fast. Not a problem if the phone sits in a dock all the time or if I carry around a pocket full of fully charged batteries all the time...LOL

Kinda like my wife giving up on streaming Pandora radio on her phone when she realized her battery would be dead in 4 or 5 hours. What difference would your data speed make?? Her phone stays in her purse all day on standby, she listens to an mp3 player with built in fm tuner all day...it's battery lasts all week and there's no cap on how much music she can listen to.

The simple answer for you is 4g does almost nothing. I maybe get < 1/3 of my data from wifi and I can tell you 4g does almost nothing for me. And I use a decent # of gigs. I have the bionic and it actually isnt too bad on the batteries in 4g. I seems to use only about 10% more power but even then I usually stay in 3g mode because that is how little difference 4g makes to the things I do. What do I do thats soooo modelT luddite? Well I stream radio a lot. Browse the web, youtube video even stream from my own pc. Didnt even matter much in bit torrent.
The only place it mattered enough for me to actually bother to switch it was doing some actual file downloading (rare) and on a few selected bit torrents also rare. I think its working because I do get a 4g speed of 27/14 mbps and a 3g speed of 1.0 mbps/.5
Perhaps the most mainstream reason to have 4g is doing the ADD thing on youtube. It can be 10 or 15 seconds to start streaming and 4g is around 2-4 seconds. If you do that a lot then it would be very helpful. But even then without 4g its still very functional. Most video streaming seems to work fine.
I found it funny that the OP came at it from a view of how crazy or ignorant all these people are. I'm not ignorant and am fairly power user and I agree with the 48%.
The benefit goes to the carrier because they know they can cram 20-40 times more users onto the same network. Verizon should be giving us a 30% discount to go to 4g it seems to me.

 

[Roglo1]

Honestly I'm on 3g more than 4G even when it's strong. I can do everything I want with half the battery consumption.. Until 4G radios draw less battery I agree with 4G isn't needed, especially if 3g is not overloaded its plenty fast. If I'm plugged into a charger I need to do a lot of heavy browsing I will switch to 4 G. With today's limited data plans what good 4 G anyway you can burn thru your data cap so fast your head will spin... I still have my unlimited data plan and still spend most of my time on 3 G. I'm sending this from 3 G now

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

I agree with the above. Who needs 4G. Most of the time it is unavailable. What is so great about it. I have, yet, to see any meaningful difference.

 

[blacksoxing]

I still feel this way: it's nice to have....but I don't shed tears when I can't access it.

I used to stream full sporting PPVs on my OG Droid/tether to laptop via 3G. 1.8MB speeds. Clear quality with limited lags (if any!)

So the premise that I NEED LTE....I don't. But, I also don't mind having the service. Sometimes though it still takes forever to load what I need loaded. And of course...that's the website's server and other factors (same way like you can have the fastest internet possible and still have to wait a minute if someone's server is bogged down)

 

[xeene]

time is the most valuable aspect of life. its finite and you can't never replenish it. that's why people want to do things faster(travel, cooking, working, etc.), so they have more time for more important/pleasurable things. almost 50% of u.s. consumers waste their time.

 

[AndyMcDroid]

I came to this thread because of the DroidForums Newsletter. 50% of U.S. consumers don't think they need 4G LTE? Could it be? I couldn't believe that 50% of U.S. consumers think they do need it. I had a Bionic before we had 4G LTE in my area, and when I got to an area know to have 4G LTE, I did a speed test, and was impressed with the speed. But for the bulk of what I use my phone for - Gmail, Google Reader, some browsing, streaming Pandora - 4G LTE doesn't improve the experience in a noticeable way. The only time I really found a use for it was when I had unexpected down time in my schedule and wanted to stream a TV episode from my server at home - something I couldn't even do with 3G.

Now I'm using a GSM Nexus, and while top-end HSPA+ speeds are no match for top-end 4G LTE speeds, it's more than adequate for what I want to do. For many wireless internet uses, the wireless connection is not the weakest link in the chain, and improving anything but the weakest link will not improve the experience.

 

[lillac]

4G

I have used 4G in other places it is much faster. I would love to see happen but phone companies to slow to spend money and update.

 

[mikecox]

Why not start nere

Man, we really need to spread the word more.

Great, start with me please :blink:

What exactly does LTE stand for and isn't 4G just faster access speed for the internet or is it a faster processor? Shows what I know

I'm considering a Droid RAZR MAXX upgrade when my contract is up this week. I have to read morereviews and consider my options but I want to be sure I understand the basics. I don't want to be one of the clueless 50%!