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What this doesn't address is that networks allocate more bandwidth to newer technologies, which means the older ones get slower over time. The speed you'll get

What this doesn't address is that networks allocate more bandwidth to newer technologies, which means the older ones get slower over time. The speed you'll get on 3G (and probably even 4G) today is much slower than you used to get when those technologies were new.

yipbub 5y ago
I'd rather someone explain if/why they're wrong than downvote them please.
- LeoPanthera 5y ago
  As far as I know there's nothing in this article that is "wrong", it's just that ultimately when networks support multiple technologies they can choose where to allocate the available bandwidth, and where not to allocate it, and they usually favor whatever is newest.
  - yipbub 5y ago
    Somebody had downvoted you, not the article. I wanted to know what they had against your point :)
    - LeoPanthera 5y ago
      ...oh. :)
Dylan16807 5y ago
Even assuming everything else is equal infrastructure-wise, that's not true. The allocations on older techs will shrink, but so will the number of users. The speed you get could be slower but it could also be faster.
hulitu 5y ago
In some countries (DE) this is not true. Here they apply the law of the hole i.e. the new technology is inserted where is a hole in coverage. That has a very good marketing value ( look, we have 5G) and regulatory value (look, we have 98% coverage). For the end user it is a disaster: in a given area only one technology might work. But they say in the future we will all be connected.
Nextgrid 5y ago
> The speed you'll get on 3G (and probably even 4G) today is much slower than you used to get when those technologies were new. Also keep in mind that back in the early 3G days your phone didn't send megabytes worth of analytics data. Back then if an app merely tried to access the internet you'd get a prompt enforced by the OS (and probably a bill from the carrier) and so bandwidth was definitely not wasted on analytics and other "growth and engagement" crap.
132RRN96 5y ago
In my experience this is partially true (e.g. Carriers reusing one of the DC-HSPA Carriers as a Carrier for LTE or 5G in Band 1 is pretty common around here in Germany). I suspect the biggest reason for the speed decrease is increased usage though. Back when 2G/EDGE was current technology I got 100-200kbps there most of the time. Today it is basically unusable as you get timeouts constantly. IIRC an EDGE Cell could deliver the full data rate to about 8 stations within the coverage area or thereabouts at the same time. This worked okay back then when there were only a bunch of nerds per cell tower using but it can't cope with current usage density and patterns at all. At least around here (germany had famously high rates for data traffic at the time when 3g was recent) smartphones and data plans are a lot more widespread than a few years ago and usage patterns got more data-heavy as well.

yipbub 5y ago

I'd rather someone explain if/why they're wrong than downvote them please.

LeoPanthera 5y ago
As far as I know there's nothing in this article that is "wrong", it's just that ultimately when networks support multiple technologies they can choose where to allocate the available bandwidth, and where not to allocate it, and they usually favor whatever is newest.
- yipbub 5y ago
  Somebody had downvoted you, not the article. I wanted to know what they had against your point :)
  - LeoPanthera 5y ago
    ...oh. :)

Dylan16807 5y ago

Even assuming everything else is equal infrastructure-wise, that's not true. The allocations on older techs will shrink, but so will the number of users. The speed you get could be slower but it could also be faster.

hulitu 5y ago

In some countries (DE) this is not true. Here they apply the law of the hole i.e. the new technology is inserted where is a hole in coverage. That has a very good marketing value ( look, we have 5G) and regulatory value (look, we have 98% coverage). For the end user it is a disaster: in a given area only one technology might work. But they say in the future we will all be connected.

Nextgrid 5y ago

> The speed you'll get on 3G (and probably even 4G) today is much slower than you used to get when those technologies were new. Also keep in mind that back in the early 3G days your phone didn't send megabytes worth of analytics data. Back then if an app merely tried to access the internet you'd get a prompt enforced by the OS (and probably a bill from the carrier) and so bandwidth was definitely not wasted on analytics and other "growth and engagement" crap.

132RRN96 5y ago

In my experience this is partially true (e.g. Carriers reusing one of the DC-HSPA Carriers as a Carrier for LTE or 5G in Band 1 is pretty common around here in Germany). I suspect the biggest reason for the speed decrease is increased usage though. Back when 2G/EDGE was current technology I got 100-200kbps there most of the time. Today it is basically unusable as you get timeouts constantly. IIRC an EDGE Cell could deliver the full data rate to about 8 stations within the coverage area or thereabouts at the same time. This worked okay back then when there were only a bunch of nerds per cell tower using but it can't cope with current usage density and patterns at all. At least around here (germany had famously high rates for data traffic at the time when 3g was recent) smartphones and data plans are a lot more widespread than a few years ago and usage patterns got more data-heavy as well.