The battle for 4G is heating up, but no one's actually using 4G technology!

Americans have terrible mobile broadband network infrastructure, yet our service providers make it sound awesome. Now that 2 of our 4 national wireless providers now offer 4G service, one might conclude that the United States is awash in mobile broadband. But neither of these supposed 4G offerings is anywhere near fast enough to meet the ITU standards for 4G, and even our 3G networks woefully under-perform vendor promises. With no teeth in “truth-in-advertising” laws, it begs the question of what these supposed standards really mean.

Flashback: The 3G Rollout

When EDGE was added to existing GPRS networks by “2G” GSM carriers, many chose to advertise it as “3G”. For example, Cingular (forerunner of today’s AT&T Wireless) called their nationwide EDGE rollout a “third-generation” technology, clearly trying to capitalize on the buzz created by competitors Verizon and Sprint with their EV-DO 3G network. Cingular responded that EDGE was theoretically fast enough to be considered 3G, and this argument was eventually accepted, with EDGE added to the official list of 3G standards.

But EDGE wasn’t fast. Although theoretically capable of 1 Mbit/s throughput and 10 ms latency, the Cingular EDGE network was barely faster than the old GPRS network it replaced. Customers weren’t fooled, and although EDGE equipment became widespread, it wasn’t much of a selling point.

Then Cingular (now AT&T) decided to roll out HSPA technology, which offered “real” 3G speed. Suddenly, the EDGE network wasn’t 3G anymore (though they still call it “third generation” today). They began another nationwide 3G rollout, this time using HSPA for “up to” 14 Mbit/s downloads and 5.8 Mbit/s uploads once they turned on HSDPA and HSUPA. Although real-world performance lags, AT&T 3G is faster than their competitors. This is the 3G network that iPhone customers love to hate, and it still hasn’t reached the mid-American city where I live.

Sprint/Clear WiMAX: New Technology, Old Performance

Sprint and ClearWire got together in 2008 to launch a ”4G” network using WiMAX technology. This is the network that supports the Google Android-powered HTC EVO 4G phone, currently the darling of many technology folks who read this blog.

WiMAX is clearly a new technology, and the Sprint/Clear rollout has already cost billions. Yet WiMAX isn’t actually all that fast: The US network is limited to 6 Mbit/s download and 1 Mbit/s upload. This is slower than the HS(D|U)PA “3G” networks of AT&T and T-Mobile, and not much faster than the existing EV-DO Rev A networks of Verizon and Sprint itself.

Indeed, WiMAX isn’t anywhere near the 100 Mbit/s target set by the ITU-R as a minimum standard for mobile 4G networks, and will be hard-pressed to reach the ITU’s 1 Gbit/s fixed-location mark. Although WiMAX is a fourth-generation wireless technology, the ITU says it isn’t “4G”. But Sprint and Clear don’t care – they’re rapidly rolling ahead with sales of their “4G” hardware.

T-Mobile 4G: Play It Again

Then there’s the T-Mobile USA “4G rollout”. In light of the WiMAX push, T-Mobile decided to upgrade their existing network with HSPA+ technology. The company is aggressively selling this as 4G, and claiming they have the largest 4G network in the country.

HSPA+ definitely isn’t 4G according to the ITU. And it’s not a fourth-generation technology, either. HSPA+ is an evolution of the HSPA 3G technology already used around the world. But it works.

Unlike WiMAX, HSPA+ generally out-performs existing 3G networks by a wide margin. T-Mobile USA (and Telstra in Australia) are using a 21 Mbit/s variant that is noticeably faster than HSPA 3G, EV-DO Rev A, and Sprint/Clear WiMAX.

Stephen’s Stance

Neither WiMAX nor HSPA+ are true 4G networks according to the ITU, but it really doesn’t matter what some standards body says. Both are faster than existing technology, and both have the potential to benefit mobile broadband customers. Every technology under-performs its theoretical limits, and this is especially true with wireless networking gear. Perhaps the ITU should take what it’s calling 4G and rebadge it 5G – although LTE will be introduced next year, it won’t reach official 4G speeds any time soon.

It is frustrating to see consumers confused about naming, however. Cingular was insincere with their “third-generation” EDGE campaign, and this became obvious when they deployed real 3G technology. Although I can understand AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint getting upset about T-Mobile’s “4G” campaign, they don’t have as much to complain about this time around. T-Mobile is delivering blazing fast technology that beats everyone else in the industry and they deserve credit for that. As for me, I’d be happy with plain old 3G coverage!

Image credit: Cell Tower by live w mcs

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | 4G: Is It Really A Standard If No One Cares?
This post was categorized as Apple, Computer History, Everything, Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Uh, oh, the iPhone refuses to let you download a podcast over 20 MB, even with 3G!

Ever see that screen? You want to download a podcast from the iTunes Store on the iPhone, but you can’t. It’s over 20 MB, so it’s off limits. Surprise! There is a way to stream any podcast of any size to the iPhone, even over EDGE, with no hacking required!

Although Apple and the wireless providers limit downloading to 20 MB, they allow streaming files of any size. This simple feature has been included in the iPhone OS since the very beginning, but it’s not self-evident. In fact, although I’ve told friends exactly how to do it, many still have problems getting the hang of this trick.

How To Stream Any Podcast

Tap the TITLE to stream, not the download button!

Ok, here’s the secret trick:

1. Tap the title of the podcast, not the download button.
2. There is no step two.

That’s it! Seriously, there’s no secret, no hacking, no URLS or tricks. You just tap the title, wait a few seconds, and a QuickTime screen opens up with the podcast streaming over 3G or EDGE. This even works for video podcasts!

Gotchas

Streaming audio of Chicago Public Radio's "This American Life" over AT&T's slow EDGE network!

Although there really isn’t any trickery involved, some patience might be required. I do this all the time since I live in a part of the USA that has no AT&T 3G service. Here’s what I’ve learned:

1. You have to have patience and let the streaming start. It sometimes takes a minute or more before you hear the sweet sound of success.
2. You can not exit the QuickTIme streaming page and still listen. Tap the home button and the audio stops. Read an SMS and the audio stops. Get a battery warning and the audio stops. You get the picture.
3. QuickTime will buffer audio ahead, so it survives road trips through small middle-American wireless dead zones, but this isn’t saved anywhere. Exit and you lose the buffer.
4. You can scrub ahead to skip to the middle or end of a podcast, but it takes some serious patience to let the audio re-sync. And you lose the previous buffer when you do this.
5. This has been in every version of the iPhone OS I’ve tried, way back to day 1. It was more useful back then, too, since the limit used to be 10 MB!

Hopefully the new background audio framework in iPhone OS 4.0 makes this experience a little nicer.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | How To Stream Any Size Podcast to an iPhone, Even Over 3G or EDGE!
This post was categorized as Apple, Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Sprint USB EV-DO + Cradlepoint personal hotspot = sweet!

I was traveling this morning, and was shocked to not be able to check on my flight status with my iPhone. It just sat there churning when I arrived in Chicago. I couldn’t figure it out, but quickly booted up the Cradlepoint router and Sprint EV-DO card and was online. Since I also had critical work-related email to respond to, I would have been seriously upset if I didn’t have backup connectivity.

It turns out that AT&T’s network was out in quite a few locations. Although I didn’t see Chicago on he lists at first, it was definitely down this morning at 7 local time!

I guess my iPhone’s camera wasn’t the only thing on the fritz in Chicago!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | AT&T Down, Sprint Saves My Bacon
This post was categorized as Apple, Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

One of the most common questions I’ve been hearing after I published my articles on how to set up Exchange ActiveSync with the iPhone 2.0 software is whether or not you need an enterprise data plan from AT&T in order to use it.  There were conflicting rumors going around prior to the launch, and AT&T and Apple haven’t been clear on the subject.

Here’s the answer:  You do not need to buy the $45 Enterprise Data plan from AT&T for Exchange ActiveSync and corporate VPN access to function with an iPhone 3G or upgraded original iPhone.

This may not be the whole story, though.  Although the Exchange and VPN features exist and are functional with either the $20 EDGE or $30 3G data plans from AT&T, the company may require you to buy the $45 Enterprise Data plan.  I am not a lawyer, but the terms and conditions are no help.

And the wording on the iPhone web site and iPhone business site aren’t clear, either:  They say you must get the Enterprise Data Plan “to access corporate email, company intranet sites, and/or other business solutions/applications”.  Although this would certainly include business Exchange users, it would also include non-Exchange users accessing business sites, as well as business users accessing their Exchange server with IMAP.  And it would seem to exclude those using Exchange for personal email (which is quite possible).

Note that, although these enterprise features are fully functional in EDGE iPhones with 2.0, there is no Enterprise Data plan for them!  So if you have an original iPhone you have to use the $20 data plan no matter what!

Finally, although I can’t tell you whether AT&T allows it explicitly, many people have been successfully using their iPhones to access Exchange ActiveSync with both the $20 and $30 data plans with no problems at all.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Yes, Exchange ActiveSync for iPhone Works Without a Business Data Plan
This post was categorized as Everything. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.