Why Do I Need 4G?

[dino702]

Just bought an iPad 2 and have 3g service with it. Just bought 4g mobile hot spot from AT&T also ($50.00 per mo.) and was wondering what the benefits of 4g are?

I watch movies with my iPad, check e-mail, surf the net, Skype and that's about it.

Seems like 3g works pretty well.

I may be returning the 4g device to AT&T since it's within my 14 days.

Thanks for the responses.

 

[MoonlitSonata]

Speed.

 

[TreeM]

is it LTE? There was confusion about at&t "4g" which was really 3g on steroids and LTE, which is on another planet in terms of speed

 

[Kaykaykay]

Seems like a question that should've been asked before purchase.

 

[wxman2003]

is it LTE? There was confusion about at&t "4g" which was really 3g on steroids and LTE, which is on another planet in terms of speed

I heard AT&T was already up and running in parts of New York City, although it is still considered not operational yet.

 

[dino702]

It has both 4g and LTE. The purchase sounded good at the time and now maybe buyers remorse since I have to travel a mile away from my house to get any 4g service.

 

[jsh1120]

AT&T's 4G network is, indeed, LTE. And if the OP purchased a "4G" hotspot from AT&T it is almost certainly an LTE hotspot. My 4G/LTE mobile hotspot from Verizon runs from 7-10 times faster than 3G. The AT&T hotspot should have similar performance. But the AT&T 4G/LTE network is currently tiny compared to Verizon's (which covers about 200 cities in the US) and it will be another year before the AT&T network is deployed across the nation.

Another major advantage from my standpoint is that my mobile hotspot can connect up to five devices simultaneously. Thus, I use it for the iPad, my phone, and my laptop simultaneously. And because I'm allotted five gigs of downloads per month (for $50 on contract) I don't usually have to worry about exceeding that ceiling and being charged additionally.

For me, the mobile hotspot is a tremendous convenience because I travel a lot and frequently find that "free wifi" in hotels is worth what I'm paying for it. On the other hand, if the OP is a light user of a cell network, does not travel to or live in an AT&T 4G/LTE coverage area, and has already purchased an iPad with 3G capabilities, the additional value of a mobile hotspot may not be worth the $50 per month it costs.

 

[choPppps]

I would say if you have to travel, then you have a legitimite reason to return it. They must have some sort of guarantee.

 

[tlbaker]

AT&T's 4G network is, indeed, LTE. And if the OP purchased a "4G" hotspot from AT&T it is almost certainly an LTE hotspot. My 4G/LTE mobile hotspot from Verizon runs from 7-10 times faster than 3G. The AT&T hotspot should have similar performance. But the AT&T 4G/LTE network is currently tiny compared to Verizon's (which covers about 200 cities in the US) and it will be another year before the AT&T network is deployed across the nation.

Another major advantage from my standpoint is that my mobile hotspot can connect up to five devices simultaneously. Thus, I use it for the iPad, my phone, and my laptop simultaneously. And because I'm allotted five gigs of downloads per month (for $50 on contract) I don't usually have to worry about exceeding that ceiling and being charged additionally.

For me, the mobile hotspot is a tremendous convenience because I travel a lot and frequently find that "free wifi" in hotels is worth what I'm paying for it. On the other hand, if the OP is a light user of a cell network, does not travel to or live in an AT&T 4G/LTE coverage area, and has already purchased an iPad with 3G capabilities, the additional value of a mobile hotspot may not be worth the $50 per month it costs.

You have such good information!! Thanks as always.

Sent from my Tricked Out, Sparkly Pink Black Verizon 32GB iPhone 4 using iPF

 

[MacDan]

Very Little. I'm on Sprint's "4G" and i must say that the marginal speed improvement is not worth the drain on the battery.

Until they get the power consumption handled, 4G is not ready for prime time.

 

[wxman2003]

That's why I don't think we will see the iPad 3 with 4G capabilities. If the iPad 3 does come out in February, it likely would be a 3G model.

 

[jsh1120]

Very Little. I'm on Sprint's "4G" and i must say that the marginal speed improvement is not worth the drain on the battery.

Until they get the power consumption handled, 4G is not ready for prime time.

Unfortunately, because there is no agreed upon standard for what constitutes "4G" carriers are free to claim "4G" for any network that goes beyond (however minimally) 3G speeds. Sprint's "4G" network is probably the worst offender in this area. Verizon's 4G/LTE is much, much faster than 3G. The same is true of AT&T's 4G/LTE network although the coverage is very limited at this time. My 4G/LTE Verizon hotspot is about 7-10 times faster than 3G. The battery drain is about 20% greater (4 hours versus 5 hours). For me, the tradeoff is well worth it. YMMV.

 

[MacDan]

Unfortunately, because there is no agreed upon standard for what constitutes "4G" carriers are free to claim "4G" for any network that goes beyond (however minimally) 3G speeds. Sprint's "4G" network is probably the worst offender in this area. Verizon's 4G/LTE is much, much faster than 3G. The same is true of AT&T's 4G/LTE network although the coverage is very limited at this time. My 4G/LTE Verizon hotspot is about 7-10 times faster than 3G. The battery drain is about 20% greater (4 hours versus 5 hours). For me, the tradeoff is well worth it. YMMV.

It's sill a non issue in my book. 3g works fine for every app. From Pandora to streaming the bandwidth hungry Netflix. No torrents

Not to mention that with bandwidth caps at 2-5 gigs all you're doing is using up your allotment at a faster pace.

 

[jsh1120]

It's sill a non issue in my book. 3g works fine for every app. From Pandora to streaming the bandwidth hungry Netflix. No torrents

Not to mention that with bandwidth caps at 2-5 gigs all you're doing is using up your allotment at a faster pace.

"Using up your allotment at a faster pace?" Only if you value the time you spend waiting. Try this little experiment in arithmetic. If you download X bytes in Y seconds using 3G, and you download X bytes in Y seconds/10 with 4G, you haven't used your allotment at a faster pace; you've simply had more time to examine the content and less time waiting for the download to complete. The download is still X bytes.

What I find is that 3G is reasonable as long as there is little bandwidth contention, especially if the focus is audio downloads. However, since 4G/LTE networks can support much higher demand without degradation and perform much faster under all conditions, I've never experienced choppiness in video downloads. That's not true for a heavily used 3G network.

 

[Kaykaykay]

I've noticed video streaming choppiness on 3G in the U.S., but I don't use it enough for it to matter. I wouldn't trade 10% battery life, much less 20%, for faster speeds. 3G is fast enough for me, given the tradeoff. When I stream video, I'm typically on wi-fi.