

4G phone will quickly change things - ilamont
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2010/05/27/4g_phone_will_quickly_change_things/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed1

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fragmede
The building in Allston (a neighborhood of Boston) I work in has cellphone
towers on the roof. A few a weeks ago, Sprint contractors working on the
building told me they were putting in 4G equipment, so 'we' should be getting
4G soon.

My experience with 4G in Las Vegas was mixed. I did manage to get speeds just
under the 3 megabit quoted in the article, however that during trade show
setup. After the show opened, due to network congestion or wireless
interference, throughput dropped to be closer to 30 kilobit. Ping times also
skyrocketed to 10s of seconds. Sprint 3G wasn't much better, but AT&T's 3G
service actually stayed usable.

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byoung2
About 5 weeks ago I saw contractors installing 4G equipment on an existing
Sprint tower near LAX. LA is supposed to get 4G this year too. If 4G is just
3mbps, it's not too compelling for me, because EVDO rev A on my phone and MiFi
averages about 1.2mbps most places in LA.

The hotspot feature would be nice but again, at $30 more per month it's not
worth it. I have a WiFi router app for my Windows Mobile phone, but I'd rather
use my MiFi than kill the battery in my phone by tethering.

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ilamont
High monthly fees and add-on charges like the hotspot will be big for
consumers, but business users who get these devices through work won't feel
the pinch directly.

~~~
byoung2
Technically, the extra charge for the hotspot is the same as for non 4G Sprint
phones. They charge extra for phone as modem on most phones unless you hack
it. I'll wait and see how long it is before someone hacks this to provide free
hotspot use.

