Quote:
Originally Posted by Kumabjorn
I just checked the largest Swedish operator, their 4G network covers 92% of the country (up in the north user a few and far between) with max speeds of 80 Mbit/sec. I was thinking that 4G woud primarily be used for video phones/Skype connections. But if 4G doesn't carry voice, I have more difficulty seeing the point of it. Their competitor, a little less coverage, offers a free data plan for 400SEK/month or appr. $55/month with the same speed. I have the lower HDSPA+ data plan which states speeds up to 35Mbit/sec, in reality I get around 11Mbit/sec for about $35/month.
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That hardly surprises me as Sweden was the first country in the world to start building there network back in
2009
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_%28...mmunication%29
''The world's first publicly available LTE service was launched by TeliaSonera in Oslo and Stockholm on 14 December 2009.[3] LTE is the natural upgrade path for carriers with GSM/UMTS networks, but even CDMA holdouts such as Verizon Wireless, who launched the first large-scale LTE network in North America in 2010''
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden
It's is far more easy to build a network for sweden as 85% of the population live in cities with a tiny total population of 9 + million people.
So it has taken them 3 years to get to 92% as you said, just to cover 9 million people
.Sadly the
rest of the world is not in sweden's shoes and many countries have ether only just started there networks ( Great Britain included ) or still only offer little or no network coverage for there countries.
Most countries have much larger populations than sweden and are spread over larger expanses of land . So it will probably take 3+ minimum years from starting to get to any where near there standards.
If you live in Japan, USA , Sweden or South korea (+maybe a small number im not aware of)then LTE mite be worth it.That leaves about around 190 countries without fully developed LTE networks
