How many G's?

JimM68 · 03-27-2011, 02:37 PM

I really gotta wonder about this 3G 4G whatever G "stuff"...

hear in the Chicago area, at least on commercials, everyone is talking about 4G... Yet I go to my carrier, US Cellular, and I see nothing about 4G.

I go to verizon, and see even less.

I ain't going to AT&T, him who brings wireless to 90% of the population without ever mentioning that those 90% live in 10% of the landmass...

And what's the deal with these G's anyway?

I have an HTC Touch Pro2 windows mobile on us cellular's 3G. The internet connection is slower than dogs***. Completely unuseable for anything but email.
Tethered to my laptop, performance is better, but still about on the par with a 56k modem connection. We use it in campgrounds with no wireless.

I've seen 3G iphones and droids with much better, actually useable wireless internet performance, and yet my windows mobile is a pig, and it's the best windows mobile out there as far as I know, and us cellular's droids are also mostly htc products. :(.

I'd like to make my new RV into a useable high speed wireless hot spot, but does this technology even exist?
It sure would be nice to get a workable connection to woodalls or good sam while cruising down the highway looking for a campground.
What's the deal?

wa8yxm · 03-27-2011, 03:51 PM

"G" means Genaration The higher the number, the faster the speed, That's about all I can tell you about it.

Of course the providers all advertise their fastest service, even if it's only in one city.

NOTE: the recent purchase of T-Mobile by AT&T.. That is gonna shake thigns up a bit.

BryanL · 03-27-2011, 04:34 PM

re: ""G" means Genaration The higher the number, the faster the speed"

probably better to think that generation means technology advance which may or may not mean faster speed.

What kind of speed you get is going to depend upon many things of which the technology is just one. Often speed is a matter of signal strength, antenna, propagation factors, and even the computer to which a modem is attached and how it is attached.

If you are just the right distance from a cell tower and not anywhere near any other such towers with the right equipment and an account with a provider who is on that tower and has good back end links to the I'net that aren't congested, then you just might really see some amazing speed - that is if the servers on the other end are responsive.

It really is amazing it works at all! ... ;-)

texnet · 03-27-2011, 04:58 PM

I have had AT&T since 1987 when it was Southwestern Bell, then Cingular, then AT&T. We have travelled all the way to Alaska and back, up the central US, eastern Canada, north eastern US and several other states and yes there have been a few places that I did not have access through AT&T. However, NO CELL PROVIDER will provide access in an area that doesn't have enough customers to pay for the return on investment over a certain number of years and I don't hold any grudges against them :-) I accept the fact that sometimes I may not have cell phone service or data but I also accept the fact that no cell provide will provide me service in every single location that I am located. My AT&T data device provides me about 1.5 mbs download in major cities and around 256-768kbs in rural areas. If I need faster then I find a way to get it with WiFi or other ways.

Wizard · 03-27-2011, 05:14 PM

Got a call from Verizon yesterday, wanted to offer me a deal to upgrade my USB760 to a 4G modem. I asked if they had 4G in my area now and the caller stated " no but will have it some day". I asked when and he said " don't know but the deal won't last, only $199.00 to upgrade now".

Sounds to me like they want me to pay for their upgrade to 4G.

JimM68 · 03-27-2011, 06:26 PM

uh huh. It's all these proposed upgrades that make me nervous.

That and the dogslow speed of this htc touch pro2. Even at home, on a 12mb cable connection, it is beyond dogslow.

And I'm afraid to upgrade it. Silly to pay for any 3g hardware... even silly to pay for "vaporware" technology.

And while anything android is all the rage, the OS is free, and runs with almost no overhead on even the cheapest possible hardware. And ya no what they say, "you get what u pay for"

AT&T can't even provide a cel voice connection at my house. Every other carrier can and does.

**Route 66** · 03-28-2011, 05:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wizard

Got a call from Verizon yesterday, wanted to offer me a deal to upgrade my USB760 to a 4G modem. I asked if they had 4G in my area now and the caller stated " no but will have it some day". I asked when and he said " don't know but the deal won't last, only $199.00 to upgrade now".

Sounds to me like they want me to pay for their upgrade to 4G.

Hi tech stuff ain't cheap!

wa8yxm · 03-28-2011, 10:02 AM

How about "The higher the generation the higher the speed limit"

Yes, It is true you do not always get the full speed. in fact in some cases even if the Carrier has highest speed you may not get it due to.. Well, frankly this laptop that I'm using can not process at 4G speeds, it's sweating at 3G speeds. and the "Main" (Desktop) in the room is older, slower and playing Car Talk as I type (SO I occasionally have problems laughing and typing at the same time, but that's another matter)

Oh, if you like Car talk, and wish to get it over the internet Miro | Video Player | Free video and audio podcast player and torrent client. and download the program, enter CAR TALK in the AUDIO page search window and Add the feed.

Next. I said that the companies advertise their high speed even if it's only limited coverage.. There is one carrier, which just got bought, that advertised how much faster their service was than.. Well, the company that just bought 'em.

The problem is they had exctly N.O. high speed coverge when they started this.

NO, that's not NO coverage, it's N.O. high speed coverage.. If you were in New Orleans (N.O.) you had high speed coverage.. Elsewaere, you did not.

Never been to N.O. though when I can afford to I'm going to visit and help a friend tear down what Katrina left of their garage.