4G Vs LTE - Key Differences Explained

4G vs LTE - key differences explained
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Anyone whos been in the market for a new smartphone recently isnt just spoilt for choice when
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it comes to awesome Android handsets, but theres an ever growing range of data packages and network types to choose from as well. Of course, youre likely familiar with the older 3G standard, but newer handsets are often listed with a variety of next generation communication technologies, advertised as 4G, LTE, and sometimes 4G LTE. While that may make them appear virtually identical on the store shelves, there are actually some drastic differences between the technology advertised and the actual 4G mobile communication standard. Follow @androidauth
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The 4G standard
All the way back in March 2008, the International Telecommunications Union-Radio (ITU-R) decided on a set of specifications for its new 4G standard. The ITU-R is the United Nations official agency for all manner of information and communication
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technologies, and aims to help promote and regulate various communication standards across nations. The ITU-R decided upon a set of requirements for bandwidth, spectral efficiency, and a load of other technical points, for future 4G networks. But the most important point for us users is the peak download speeds, which are defined as 100 Mbit/s for high mobility devices, such as mobile data speeds on your smartphone while driving in car, and up to approximately 1 Gbit/s for low mobility local wireless access. To put that in some perspective, typical current download speeds are often in the range of 10Mbit/s, while 4G should offer 100 times faster downloads at a rate of 1Gbit/s. Join Email: Join our newsletter and get the most popular Android news delivered to your mailbox once a week. Name:
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Its a long road, but faster data speeds are heading our way. True 4G could offer data speeds more than 10 times the current LTE download speeds.
That sounds great, but the ITU-R doesnt have any control over implementation. As such, first generation 4G technologies, such as LTE or Mobile WiMAX, have been criticized for not matching up to the full specification. The reason for this is that other groups, such as 3GPP or IEEE, who work closely with the technology companies responsible for delivering the hardware, had already coordinated next-gen technologies with their members.
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LTE-Advanced, the true 4G

It wasnt until October 2010 that the ITU-R completed
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an assessment of six candidates to be considered true 4G technologies. After much deliberation, LTE-Advanced and WirelessMAN-Advanced were designated IMT-Advanced compliant technologies, and the age of real 4G began. LTE-Advanced is the technology that we are going to see in western markets, so heres a little rundown of what makes LTE-A so special. Firstly, its important to know that LTE-A isnt just about handset download speeds, theres a big push to make improvements to infrastructure in order to achieve these high download rates. LTE-A aims to improve data speeds by using a mix of traditional macro cells and vastly improved small cells. The aim is to offer better high speed coverage at the networks edge and more bandwidth, but the transmitters will have to function on different frequency bands in order to avoid interference.
The big buzzword with LTE-A is carrier aggregation, which will allow receiving handsets to make better use of these fragmented bands, in order to downloaded data faster. The LTE-A standard supports up to 5 carriers and up to 100MHz, which will enable download speeds of over 1Gbit/s. However, launch will only support the aggregation of two 10 MHz carriers, enabling peak data rates of 150 Mbit/s. The final important feature is the use of multiantenna techniques (MIMO) and Coordinated Multi Point (CoMP) to provide more capacity and more consistent data rates across cell boundaries. In other words, you will be able to maintain a more consistant download rate as you move in and out of the range of transmitters.
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However, under pressure from 3GPP and IEEE, HSPA+,WiMAX and LTE were also allowed to be labelled as 4G technologies despite not offering these features, as many companies had already begun investing in these networks during the two and a half year deliberation.
4G imposters
This has left the consumer market in a bit of a mess, allowing carriers to offer a variety of different 4G plans for many years, despite none of them having a network which meets the official requirements. Lets breakdown some of the technologies currently being offered as 4G, and why they dont match up to the ITU-R standard.
A quick comparison of the theoretical and real world implementations of current and future network technologies. All 4G products currently on the market are considered pre-4G. Source: Tech Spot
WiMAX US consumers may remember that Sprint was the first to the 4G market with its WiMAX technology. However this was only ever built to offer customers around 3-6Mbit/s download speeds and upload speeds of just 1 to 1.5Mbit/s, and was rightly shunned by disappointed consumers.
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WiMAX fails to deliver even 1% of the theoretical peak download speed of the 4G standard created by the ITU-R. Fortunately, Sprint is phasing out WiMAX support in favour of its new LTE network. HSPA+ HSPA+ is the pinnacle of current 3G technology, offering a theoretical 168Mbit/s downlink speed. In reality most HSPA+ coverage is only capable of 21Mbit/s, with some areas being upgraded to 42Mbit/s and occasionally even 84Mbit/s. But even the fastest implementation of HSPA+ is a long way behind the 1Gbit/s download speed required to be considered a real 4G network. But this hasnt stopped a number of US carriers from advertising HSPA+ as 4G. T-Mobile was one of the first companies to falsely advertise its HSPA+ network as 4G, and AT&T followed suit shortly after. Arguably AT&T is even worse, as its network started out with capabilities peaking at 14.4Mbit/s download and 5.8Mbit/s upload speeds, which is ridiculously slow for a 4G network. Users in the UK, and some other countries, will probably have noticed that some carriers actually offer HSPA+ as part of their 3G network packages. So it seems that US consumers are being sold and overcharged to use a slower network under the guise of a next generation technology.
HSPA+ vs. LTE here.

LTE More recently, carriers have begun to offer LTE options that can theoretically offer a 100 Mbit/s download speed for mobile devices. Coverage currently varies depending on your carrier and real world data speeds are often nowhere this theoretical maximum, and are often reported to only be a tad faster than HSPA+.
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It takes a long time to upgrade an entire network, but LTE is slowing making its way across the US. Source: US Cellular
To be a little more specific about the other shortcomings of LTE, other than the lack of download speed, its also lacking in uplink spectral efficiency and speed, and it falls short of the true 4G capacity of 3.7 bps/Hz/cell, mainly due to the lack of carrier aggregation and multi-antenna techniques, which will enable higher speeds. LTE is a stopgap solution before the real 4G experience reaches us with the rollout of LTE-A.
Carrier marketing
If all these different technologies werent confusing enough, carriers have been all too keen to exploit the 4G marketing term to consumers who are seeking faster data speeds. Other than offering network types which arent capable of true 4G speeds, carriers are beginning to offer compromised 4G packages as they transfer their existing networks over to LTE. Take a look at AT&Ts current 4G marketing, which claims to offer users fast 4G speeds on both the HSPA+ network and on the LTE network.
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Based on this advertisement, youd assume that LTE was 2.5 times as fast as HSPA+, but the reality is often disappointing.
We already know that HSPA+ is not fast enough to be considered true 4G, and the LTE coverage areas are also surprisingly small. Despite the PR talk, this smarter network essentially means that youll be dropping down to the slightly older HSPA+ network when out of range of the LTE network, and the small print even states that 4G speeds arent available everywhere either. That doesnt sound like anything promised by true 4G or LTE-A. Fortunately companies openly offer information on their network coverage, so its always worth checking out exactly what coverage and speed youll receive in your area before deciding on a 4G contract.
When can we use true 4G?

The bottom line is that technically, no company yet offers a true 4G experience for consumers, but LTE-A and WM-A arent too far away. Having said that, current LTE data plans are a step above the older 3G networks and the pre-4G connections, and is definitely what you should look out for if youre planning to get a device with a fast, premium mobile data experience. The technology is only going to improve with time and, because LTE and LTE-A are fully compatible, you wont lose out when companies finish upgrading their networks.
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If youre planning on waiting for a full 4G experience, you will need a compatible handset to achieve the full speed. A good example of this is the Korean version of the Galaxy Note 3, which makes use of the built in LTE-A modem in the Snapdragon 800 chip. LTE-A is scheduled to start rolling out in the US at some point this year.
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Comments
Tun Ankh
We will never have true 4g, I guess. All the carriers use fake 4g as a gimmick to fool people. T-mobile is one example. Even its LTE is only 5 mbps in many places. If you live in New York, you might get better speed, but most people live outside of New York. By the time we get the speed of true 4g, they will have called it 7G or by some fancy names like Ultra Z (which is gonna be like 1 terabit per sec in theory? Lol). They dont care about the quality of service. They care about hooking people up with their tricks and lies.
NotCOOL
please I would be happy if I can get good solid data sevice at around 5-6Mbps down but with sprint I cant even get a good 3g service in buildings and have never seen 4g and I live in the bay area. Too bad everyone else has data cap now I have to choose unlimited CRAP or CAPPED good stuff :(
SY
i feel the same way :(
Alex Ohannes
Wow. This article just made me realize how spoiled everyone is. My home internet is 3mbps (less-than-3G-speed) and I do perfectly fine. Lesson learned: 3G is good enough for me, and will be for a while.
Jim Dandy
Way back when I thought dial up was fine. But then I got ADSL! Whatever you do, dont use a faster network, it will ruin you.
Igor Danilovic
Nice article.
Mohd Danial
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Barely gettin any data speed here despite labelled as 4g
Lux
Here in Australia on Telstra I get 50mbps lte easy in most places and our 3G is usually around 8-10mbps
James Childress
AT&T in my community has 4G but they limit it to 7/1 Mbps. It doesnt matter how fast the standard is if they throttle or have limited bandwidth available to a tower.
Groud Frank
On my way to work and my data notification keeps switching between H and E.. Yeah, thats right,EDGE. Decent HSPA+ speed is fine for me. People are paying for speeds they dont need or utilise properly. They want it because its the new thing out. A little bit of patience goes a long way and saves you some money too. How important is it to load Facebook a few seconds faster ?
Animesh Paul
yes .i feel the same way..its nothing but waste of money for me(student)
abazigal
Dont forget the ridiculously low data caps most mobile contracts come with. Its like getting a ferrari, but having only a teaspoon of gas to run it with. :(
paresh suthar
nice, i see it as being assigned an officer to follow you around and make sure you dont travel more than x miles, or faster than y miles unless z overage is paid.
Jim Dandy
Shame. Here in the UK we have unlimited data. Land of the free?
Hellz
i would prefer good quality 3g network to those 4g networks. good 3g network can stream 1080p video from youtube just fine, what else do you need?
John-Phillip Saayman
In south Africa we probably only get that umts speed
wwphilQC
well here in Montreal, LTE gives me 75mbps down and 45 up. Downloading a ~2GB 1080p Sons of Anarchy episode from private news server takes less than 20 minutes. Thats whats fine with me.
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The technology is there, for most of the 1st world, they just wont make it available to mass because its just unaffordable for most people. Dont know why its available here for free, but yeh!
eliseo
Im in italy, in my family we have all principal operators: Wind : 0.50 mb (d) / 0.25 mb (u) Vodafone : 5.41 (d) / 1.01 (u) Tim : 2.22 (d) / 1.50 (u) 3 : 4.70 (d) / 0.89 (u)
mazdajdavis
I get 32mbps down and 21mbps up LTE on T-mobile in Tucson Az call it what you want but thats more than enough speed fir anything ill be doing on a smartphone, shoot online at all.
ConCal
I cant wait for full blown VoLTE across all networks. It will be another 10 years, but it will be great!
damian01211
Here in Ireland on HSPA+ Im getting around 5 mb down and 2 up on Vodafone. Im having full signal in my phone. If LTE will be working then I tested ! ;D
Hollin.Tolland
Im still waiting for voice coverage in my neighborhood. Is 1 bar too much to ask? Ill take 1x data and 1 bar. How much do you have to pay AT&T and Verizon them to get them to get any bars? I think theyve both stopped putting in towers and are just fitting existing towers with new bells and whistles. Am I wrong?
R_Fact
Can you tell me who needs 20+Mbps on a phone?!! In the end it is about how steady the speed is and the latency. My HSPA+ AT&T connection was quite satisfactory in the SF Bay Area(speedtest.net 6Mbps/2Mbps) , LTE is still better (30-50Mbps/20Mbps on the right side of my house:-) ).
Andres
Im in Colombia. I pay around 70 dollars for 2mps download and 0,5mbps upload (at best) and 4GB of data package and around 500 minutes for calls. And that is with a corporate plan which is supposed to be good .. sad isnt it????
districtjack
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Anyone getting 1Mbps should be happy. Most use is viewing a web page right? On HSPA I get 5 Mbps which is just fine. When I do go to an LTE area I have 19-22 Mbps. LTE is advertised as up to 75Mbps but I have never met anyone who has experienced that speed in Ontario. Or anywhere else.
Melad360
ive gotten 83mbps before in waterloo, but it was at like 3:30am when no one uses the network lol. during the day i usually get about 45mbps
districtjack
What phone were you using?
Melad360
Nexus 4, Im running the older baseband to get LTE
Steve
I get 32Mbps down and 17Mbps up on T-Mo LTE. Thats just fine.
Twerk Master
Here in North Korea, we use 2g. I am hoping that we will get 4g soon, maybe after a month. So excited! :)
D3Seeker
when ever we do finally get to true 4g it will be called 5.5g
Satans banana hammock

Shaba daba ding dong
Diarrhea Milkshake
Lets be honest, we just need enough speed to stream porn flicks in hi-def without buffering at the grand finale..
denishag26
Recently I was REALLY low on money and debts were eating me from all sides! That was UNTIL I decided to make money.. on the internet! I went to surveymoneymaker dot net, and started filling in surveys for cash, and surely Ive been far more able to pay my bills! Im so glad, I did this!!! zdym
jerryf01
In the Philippines life is provided by two monopolies, Smart (PLDT) and Globe, both supposably providing 4G LTE service in limited areas. One of the main problems is they provide so many gimmicks that not even the sales staff can keep up with all the BS. For $23.00 mo I get (sometimes) 2MB/s (2000KB/s) no data caps, but my buddy in a neighboring town Had 4g LTE, and all of a
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sudden no more. Only HSPA+ that provides up to 600KB/s, normally 200-400 KB. Price is OK, service sucks, still its better than the Old up to 2Mbps provided at the same price Bottom Line: Telcos, quit the bull $hit, advertise what you serve up, not what be be available at 3 AM on a Sunday Morning.
vovooujd
DzW Lately i was lacking in cash and debts were eating me from everywhere. that was UNTIL i found out how to make money on the Internet. I visited surveymoneymaker d.o.t net, and started doing surveys for straight cash, and really, Ive been much more able to get around financialy! Im happy that i did this.. With all the financial stress these years, I really hope all of you will give it a chance. sJY3
Peter Otte
Thanks for the detailed explanation. I read your article on my iPhone 5c with an LTE connection because its much faster than the wifi connection at this Starbucks, which Im told uses an AT&T DSL connection. The latter is bottle necked by too many laptop and mobile users I reckon. Im curious about data security in public places: generally speaking, is it safer to use your own LTE connection than the public wifi (NSA snooping notwithstanding).
Ktracho13
I have a T-Mobile phone, my brother an att phones, we did a test speed comparison, T-Mobile did not pass the 5mbps, att reach almost 50mbps. Does att have faster network speed now?
Frederick
Do you think phone companies intentionally slow their 3g networks speeds down as to make their fake 4g network look like a big improvement?
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4G Vs LTE - Key Differences Explained

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