Wiko Rainbow Up 4g Fiche Technique

Y'all've heard it in commercials, seen it plastered across billboards, and peradventure even read about it in your cellphone plan. But what is 4G LTE, and how do its speeds and coverage compare to other 3G and 4G networks?

A History of 3G and 4G

To understand what LTE is–across "a really fast network"–we take to take a step dorsum in time. You probably retrieve when the 3G, or third generation, standard was a big deal in the 2000s–it made accessing the net on your phone significantly faster and more than user-friendly.

3G is required to meet IMT-2000 (International Mobile Telecommunications-2000) technical standards, which ways a peak download rate of 200 Kbps, or 0.2 Mbps. This may seem slow to y'all now, but at the time, it was enough to get your email in a timely fashion.

Logically, the next step after 3G–the tertiary generation of wireless mobile communications engineering science–would be 4G, or the 4th generation. The the ITU Radiocommunications Sector (ITU-R) set some requirements as to what would constitute a 4G network: it must provide peak 100 Mbps downloads if you lot're using a mobile device such equally a phone or tablet. More stationary devices, such as mobile hotspots, should provide peaks speeds of one Gbps.

In more recent years, 3G has made some advancements. High Speed Bundle Access (HSPA), for case, tin can offer theoretical speeds upwards to vii.2 Mbps, and is often called 3.5G or Turbo 3G.

Then came 4G, in the class of Evolved Loftier Speed Packet Access (HSPA+) and Long-Term Evolution (LTE). Both were marketed this as "4G", even though they didn't meet the ITU's standards–neither reached that 100 Mbps download rate.

LTE, however, wasn't just another improvement of 3G. It was meant to be more than of an umbrella term given to the technologies designed to get us to the 4G standard. In other words, it's what 4G volition be be when the engineering evolves enough to provide those speeds. It'south 4G-Eventually.

As a way of compromising, the ITU-R decided that mobile carriers could market LTE (and HSPA) every bit 4G, since they represented a meaning improvement over 3G and paved the way for true 4G speeds.

How LTE Stacks Up in Speed and Coverage

Okay, we're washed with the history lesson. Let'southward tackle the question that truly matters: What kind of speeds does LTE actually offer right now? Frankly, information technology depends on where you are and who you are using for your wireless service.

According to a report by Open Betoken, the average LTE download speed in the US is 9.9 Mbps while the global average is xiii.v Mbps. That'due south far off the ideal 100 Mbps 4G standard, only a marked improvement over old 3G speeds. In a race betwixt the large four US wireless carriers, even the highest boilerplate speed (Verizon) was just over 12 Mbps.

Recall, that's an average. Your speed may be faster, or information technology could be slower. As you lot can meet to the right, I used Speedtest app on my iPhone 6S (which is available for Android also) on T-Mobile in Florida, and mine were much higher (albeit withal way below 100 Mbps).

Simply it's not simply about speed: coverage matters too. After all, if you never run across that "LTE" icon in the menu bar of your phone, you won't ever go those highly-advertised speeds.

Coverage depends on your carrier. Each of the iv major US carriers–AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile–utilize different frequency bands, which is how they separate their signals from ane another. A frequency band is a grouping of radio frequencies mobile carriers thus use to communicate with clients, i.due east. your smartphone, and vice-versa.

LTE, in its current specification, allows carriers to deploy it on different frequency bandwidth blocks. In essence, a bandwidth block is how much space a carrier allocates to a network. Currently, both Verizon and T-Mobile have dedicated the widest channels for their LTE from 10MHz to 15MHz, all the way up to 20MHz.

Network coverage at lower frequencies, peculiarly the 700Mhz range, volition provide LTE access in more locations such equally buildings and sheltered areas. In fact, in terms of coverage–measured by how much fourth dimension subscribers are able to get an LTE point, the superlative iii carriers take almost reached parity.

Co-ordinate to the oft-cited OpenSignal written report, Verizon comes out on top, with nearly 87% coverage, followed by AT&T 82.6%, and T-Mobile at 81.2%. Sprint comes in a distant quaternary at 70%. Remember, these show the proportion of time subscribers become an LTE signal, not a geographic percent of land–just that's still quite skillful.

The Time to come: LTE Advanced and 5G

That'due south the nowadays. So what nigh the future?

Mobile speeds will no uncertainty proceed to advance and gain speed. LTE Advanced is the new standard companies are hyping, which promises to finally evangelize "True 4G" speeds. So basically, LTE Advanced is what 4G was supposed to be all forth.

5G, meanwhile, volition exist the next logical pace up from 4G. As you lot might guess, 5G stands for fifth generation, and is supposed to promise speeds up to x gigabits per seconds–plenty to download a total Hd movie in mere seconds.

Dissimilar LTE, which occupies lower frequency bands, 5G tin occupy both lower frequency bands and ultra-loftier bands. Using these higher bands means 5G won't travel as far as 4G LTE and will need to exist additional to brand it practical to a wide audience. None of this matters much at this point nonetheless, as the technical standards are still being worked out and won't be finalized until 2020.

For right now, 4G LTE is proficient enough for the vast majority of mobile users, and volition be for some fourth dimension. Logically, if or when True 4G or LTE Advanced becomes the norm, information technology will suffice for a fourth dimension while mobile providers roll out 5G and so on.