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3G or LTE That is the Question

111111
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

9524CEE1-30A6-437D-83A8-6265D6E2289E.png

 2 Speed tests here it seems to me keeping 3G on is better then LTE what are your thoughts 

11 REPLIES 11

Asher2
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

LTE limiting does actually fail frequently during my 30-days of the plan. 

This may just be me but after every plan renewal, I get full LTE speeds for 48 hours even if I don’t change plans. I also get them at random times of the month/30 days. (Yes I do know they’re by 30-days and not by the month but I like to call them months but at the same time not trying to spread misinformation.) 

 

Not complaining about the full LTE speeds they’re great. Just really aren’t needing them.


@Asher2 wrote:

Woah woah there. I personally would want to stay on the LTE network. LTE generally has better performance.

 

I also do have to warn you about speed tests. They generally do take up alot of data and especially if you have a very small amount of data in your plan. 


LTE would generally have better performance if all things were equal, but they're not. The LTE network connections are throttle for those on 3g plans. It is possible to get much better performance on the HSPA network, although it will be less consistent.

 

As for speedtest.net, at 3Mbps, that's going to use very lttile data, although if you do it numerous times, it's still possible to up a good amount of your data.  The danger is if you're a new customer or have recently changed plans from a an LTE plan to a 3g plan as the LTE speeds won't be throttled for the first 48 hours.  There are also cases in which the speed limitting fails and customers randomly get full speeds.  With full LTE speeds, you might end up using 500MB (maybe even 1GB) in one test.

Asher2
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

Woah woah there. I personally would want to stay on the LTE network. LTE generally has better performance.

 

I also do have to warn you about speed tests. They generally do take up alot of data and especially if you have a very small amount of data in your plan. 

@PMinfo your phone is measuring different things, so it's not an apples-to-apples comparison. 3G measures RSCP on a 5 MHz channel. LTE measures RSRP on a 5, 10, 15 or 20 MHz channel.

@111111 

I would be interested to know how much data you used on those two tests.....

 

I also see you performed the tests at 12:40 am there by almost guaranteeing a good result for your 3g test with few users on the network at that time. Try that test at 7pm and see what the performance level is at that time.

I am not a huge user of Data. So not a good one to make comments or recommendations. My phone is set at LTE. I have no idea what 3G, LTE or 5G really means for speed or quality. I would assume that the newer setting of LTE would work downwards when only 3G is present. And having the "time" issue on an iPhone...the issue was solved by setting my cellular to LTE. I will remain at LTE. 

PMinfo
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

@sheytoon 

Signal strength is also at play.  Indoors with my PM signals - 3G setting produces a better dBM signal at -75.

 

Setting to LTE produces a signal strength of -103 (i.e. much worse)

 

Not sure if this will hold true for Winnipeg & Brandon...  Those might want to chime in who are actually using there.


@111111 wrote:

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 2 Speed tests here it seems to me keeping 3G on is better then LTE what are your thoughts 


This can vary greatly depending on where you are. I notice that especially indoors, the 3g network is far more likely to give very poor results or have the data cut out entirely. I fnd the LTE to be a more consistent performer, even when the speed is limited to 3Mbps on many plans. On 3g, I can get 35Mbps on one test with a ping of 20ms, but a speed of 0.35Mbps with a ping of 200ms on another. The LTE results are never great on a 3g plan but you know for the most part what you're going to get.

will13am
Oracle
Oracle

@111111 , for large downloads, 3G might be the way to go.  However, for small bits of data, LTE may actually feel faster due to better latency performance.  Anyway this topic has been debated many times in the past.

I would still prefer LTE. You're not always going to have such a great signal, and LTE is superior at poor coverage scenarios.

hTideGnow
Mayor / Maire

@111111 , yes.. Public Mobile is running on LTE and throttled to 3Mb/s.  However, if you select 3G only, the data speed could be faster depending on network congestion in your local area.   It is running on full 3G speed in this case.

 

 

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