We evaluate the performance one week Vodafone 4G service, and these days there have been many important reflections on the future of mobile telephony and mobile Internet. The change is simply brutal.
Drawing parallels: Internet Evolution “fixed”
How things have changed. For those who have a few years old and have lived the very earliest days of the Internet in Spain the current situation is the culmination of a little utopia. The jump of those 56 kbps modems to DSL first was absolutely revolutionary.
From there things continued to improve. Not without protest, not without difficulty, without the odious but inevitable comparisons with other countries where ADSL connections were cheaper and faster. However, in recent years the competition has given their result and we have a very settled market with very acceptable deals and outstanding transfer rates.
The optical fiber, of course, has returned to shake up the market, with rates in the dust leave the offering ADSL lines and attractive prices … if one leverages them to these connections.
The way in mobile telephony has been similar, with first time when this “endearing” WAP joys seemed to promise too many mobile users. But things got better, first with 2G networks, and later with a 3G networks today are in many countries an essential pillar of everyday life of the owners of a smartphone or tablet.
And so we were. With a 3G network that met in most cases but still made us aspire to that mobile broadband everyone talking. And that broadband came with the landing, at last, 4G technology / LTE.
The largest mobile
Having in hand a phone with 4G connectivity is simply amazing. Vodafone was the first 4G network in coming to our country, and although its implementation has not just begun his way, evidence-again.
To get in position, the feeling is similar to what one lives, going from a DSL “conventional”, with 10 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream, to a fiber 10 times more potent in both directions.
In the case of fixed telephony that change is impressive by the fact that the actual transfer rate of the fiber is much closer to those theoretical maximums to sell us, when ADSL connections are factors-such as distance Central-that determine the actual performance of such connections.
But in mobile telephony, the jump from 3G to 4G, although similar, is even more shocking. Download speeds are 10-fold (minimum) but the data upload speeds are 20, 30, 50 times higher than those hitherto enjoyed. And that makes the possibilities of mobile Internet multiply equally.
Who needs 4G?
Obviously not everyone needs nowadays this type connection: Transfer rates are absolutely brutal, with peaks that can theoretically reach 150 Mbps download and 50 Mbps upload.
Even without reaching those numbers for now, the fact is that these numbers are frightening. Who needs to download 150 Mbps (or rather, 50 Mbps for now) on my phone? Today, very few and yet, that option is now available at a price that truly remarkable, though, is limited to those 10 GB of traffic per month that we return to reality currently the mobile 4G.
The same applies to the upstream channel that pops out even more than usual to offer transfer rates that are exceptional even for massive scenes video and uploading this possible continuous synchronization or data that allow these connections. The offer is there, but as in the case of fiber, you have to evaluate if you really will draw out of this type of transfer fees before launching their recruitment.
Usage Scenarios
Many reflections arise after these days with a 4G connection in mobile. The first, of course, is that of the possible situations in which services such as Vodafone 4G may be useful.
Of course, the improvement is noticeable in day to day: downloading mail, browse the Internet or listen to streaming music services will also be possible and we will have more guarantees better performance, but all these were covered transactions and more than 3G connections acceptable in most cases.
But of course, 4G telephony leads to the implementation of many options so far not allow current 3G infrastructure. We can think of including the following:
- Streaming Video: With video content services (television movies, series, and documentaries) will arrive via the mobile in high quality and with a massive offer.
- Working in the cloud: Working with mobile becomes a reality, especially if we share the connection with more solutions oriented and productivity like laptops.
- Bulk Data Synchronization: This process also opens its doors to the capacity of 4G connections. No more waiting to get home or to a wireless Internet hotspot for uploading to Facebook or Google+ this high quality video or photos to stop these resolutions just take our camera smartphone 13 Mega pixels.
- Online Games on Mobile: We discussed the results of the tests that the latencies are reduced and pings show the good performance of these response times. That could boost online mobile game (again, online game on mobile) to place it at a level identical to that now has the game from the PC, portable, or console.
The possibilities seem almost limitless. As much as they were in the world of fixed ADSL connections with those increasingly versatile and powerful, but with the difference that in this case we will equip 4G connections that power completely ubiquitous. We will not have to be home to access possibilities hitherto seemed almost science fiction.
Do you need fixed?
Of course, the arrival of 4G phones further begs the need for fixed telephony. More and more users avoid using fixed lines at home: Internet use was very limited and did not compensate for fixed cost.
The problem, of course, was that mobile Internet access did not give all the advantages of ADSL flat rates. But the 4G technology could represent a step in the obsolescence of fixed telephony. Especially a very significant fact that, I have seen in my flesh.
And currently I have ADSL2 + line which gives me about 16 Mbps sustained in the downstream channel, and about 2 Mbps sustained on the rise. The Vodafone 4G connection according to our tests, attention is 3 times faster downhill, and almost 10 times faster uphill. What prevents abandon my ADSL line?
For a single factor: the transfer limit. For now mobile data networks continue to impose the amount of data that can be downloaded, and today this is the big but Vodafone 4G. Given that 3G phone offers 1GB normally limits of traffic per month, have only 10 GB with a 4G connection is a real problem. Because 50 Mbps down, believe me, those 10 GB very fast fall short if we get them match.
Conclusions
Failing that that longed-but-impossible time flat rate mobile data connections come with 4G, we have a picture that’s still extremely interesting for mobile users.
And is that except for this paragraph, all benefits in this Vodafone 4G landing that he can only settle-as in the rest of the market in our country to get to (almost) everything and (almost) all as it does now 3G telephone.
The cost of this option is more than acceptable for users demanding data traffic, and the leap is absolutely brutal. We can only see what services and benefits are emerging that take advantage of transfer rates that, no doubt, and although it may sound grandiloquent phrase-give rise to a new era in mobile telephony.
