Verizon’s LTE Network Tested

With all of these experiences that we had with Verizon’s LTE, we can say it is safe to say that LTE is definitely the future of wireless and that it is only a matter of time until every portable device we carry uses LTE. There is however, one major drawback to LTE, which is the price. LTE is much faster than 3G, by our estimates approximately 10 times faster in terms of downloads and about 20 times faster in terms of uploads. This gives users an experience with very fast internet speed, which will find them gravitating towards more dense data consumption that requires more network bandwidth. Because of this, people will be using consuming large portions of their limited data plans without even realizing it. As a result, many people that like watching HD videos while on the go will likely find themselves needing to monitor their data consumption to avoid incurring overage charges. Furthermore, it would be helpful if better codecs existed in order to utilize bandwidth more efficiently, so that high quality video can be transmitted at lower bit rates.

For those interested in the future of mobile broadband, you can read up on LTE Advanced, which is poised to be the successor to today’s LTE and has theoretical maximum speeds of 1Gbps as tested by Ericsson (rather than the current 100Mbps on the current generation of LTE). This proves some perspective on what we can expect in the future from LTE, if the carriers decide to provide enough bandwidth.

In regards to pricing, you have three choices. 2GB for $30 a month, 5GB for $50 a month or 10GB for $80 a month. These plans are available for smartphones, tablets and netbooks, with the 2GB plan not being available at all for USB modems and dedicated hotspots. There is also an option to enable mobile hotspot on your smartphone and combine that with your data plan. That will cost $50 for 4GB of data.

Based on all of our testing, our own experiences, and working with Verizon there is no doubt in our mind that Verizon deserves an Innovation Award for Enthusiasts. The reason for this is that LTE is currently not widespread enough to be considered mainstream and there are not enough handsets on Verizon’s network that support LTE in order to consider it mainstream just yet. Admittedly, Verizon is constantly adding new LTE handsets to their catalog, and is just as quickly working hard in order to make their network more robust and effective than ever before.