Should I jump to 4G LTE?

[chris888222]

Well, my telco will be launching 4G LTE nationwide on 15 September and I have a dataless phone contract which is ending in two weeks. I intend to get either the iPhone 5 (if it has local LTE support) or some droid with 4G capabilities and upgrade to a data plan.

Here's the deal:
The 3G-only plan is $39.90 a month (3GB)
If you want 4G LTE, you have to top up $10.70 monthly and can be terminated anytime since its counted as a value added service.
If you signed up for LTE, it will override the 3GB data instead of additional.

On average and based on real life (not bullshit by telcos), how much faster is 4G LTE compared to 3G HSPA? Singapore's 3G speeds are from average to disastrous (can be as low as 0.6mbps on HSPA). However I'm not certain if I should pay that extra $10.70.

Hope you guys/gals can help me out... I'm new to this kind of thing so I'm pretty much a noob.

Thanks

This is my dad's line btw. He wants to try out the iPhone after using a Galaxy S2 so... Yeah. That's the first choice.

 

[Jamstruth]

The thing with LTE is the battery drain. 4G phones often have to have the specs nerfed to help the power drain from 4G radios.

 

[AlanJohn]

But the iPhone 5(which is actually the iPhone 6) probably won't have 4g.

But yeah, 4g drains the battery faster then it can charge from a PC.

 

[chris888222]

If the iPhone 5 has 4G support for my region, I'll jump in. Or else I'll get some android with 4G support. My dad has been using androids for some time now and he wants to try something new (that isn't windows phone).

I'm not particularly worried about battery life. What I mean was... Is that $10 addon worth it for 4G speeds? Or is it just redundant?

 

[Jamstruth]

Battery life is the main downfall of any 4G system at the moment, as it was with 3G when it initially came out.
Does your dad need a 5mbps+ connection everywhere? I would prioritise battery life over that myself. Only other downfall is coverage really which your city seems to have.
Some 3G systems running on HSPA+ can get 7mbps at a push (I believe in the USA T-Mobile is doing this and calling it 4G) so it really just depends how good your network is at dealing with 3G whether 4G is worth it.

 

[Originality]

iPhone 5 announced, and does come with 4G support for Singapore (and most regions) up to 100Mbps. Quoted 8h talk time on either 3G or LTE (I refuse to call it 4G when it doesn't meet the minimum specs of 4G).

Source, engadget and Apple websites.

 

[chris888222]

My carrier has lowered the prices of LTE plans. Now they are the same price as 3G plans, albeit there's a massive data cut (12GB -> 3GB).

I'm definitely jumping in since all plans are now 2GB.

 

[Joe88]

these are my 4g lte speeds

ive seen people get almost 40mbps though

 

[slingblade1170]

You guys are lucky, i pay $80 a month for 10gb of data on a 4g device that is only giving 3g speeds. I'm in a very small town and 4g is all around but not in my town, wish I could get it.

 

[MegaBassBX]

Well, my telco will be launching 4G LTE nationwide on 15 September and I have a dataless phone contract which is ending in two weeks. I intend to get either the iPhone 5 (if it has local LTE support) or some droid with 4G capabilities and upgrade to a data plan.

Here's the deal:
The 3G-only plan is $39.90 a month (3GB)
If you want 4G LTE, you have to top up $10.70 monthly and can be terminated anytime since its counted as a value added service.
If you signed up for LTE, it will override the 3GB data instead of additional.

On average and based on real life (not bullshit by telcos), how much faster is 4G LTE compared to 3G HSPA? Singapore's 3G speeds are from average to disastrous (can be as low as 0.6mbps on HSPA). However I'm not certain if I should pay that extra $10.70.

Hope you guys/gals can help me out... I'm new to this kind of thing so I'm pretty much a noob.

Thanks

This is my dad's line btw. He wants to try out the iPhone after using a Galaxy S2 so... Yeah. That's the first choice.

Go iPhone I own one its the best thing I ever bought since the iPad 2 that I never changed do it go LTE+iPhone believe me you'll never regret it .

 

[Originality]

As an iPhone 5 owner and a Samsung Galaxy S3 (pre-LTE version) owner, I can tell you that your opinions don't really matter in a thread that's 3 months old.

And that LTE is a lot faster than 3G/H+, but coverage isn't everywhere so you can't always get the faster speeds. At least at home it's faster than my home broadband.
But the S3 is a better phone than the iPhone 5.

 

[MegaBassBX]

As an iPhone 5 owner and a Samsung Galaxy S3 (pre-LTE version) owner, I can tell you that your opinions don't really matter in a thread that's 3 months old.

And that LTE is a lot faster than 3G/H+, but coverage isn't everywhere, so you can't always get the faster speeds. At least at home it's faster than my home broadband.
But the S3 is a better phone than the iPhone 5.

My opinion does count either you like it or not and any topic thats old or new doesn't change the fact that there is a new comment , I also own a S3 and it is an great phone, but I think the iPhone is better as I never had any problems with it at all the S3 some times stops working or loses signal temporarily for a few seconds,and that never happened to the iPhone 5.

 

[Deleted member 318366]

I know this isnt relevant to the question but isnt tmobile going LTE soon?

 

[Originality]

In the UK, TMobile runs on the EE network. Whilst TMo doesn't do LTE themselves, they do offer a free upgrade to an EE contract which will have LTE.

As for America, I don't know any specific details.

@MegaBassBX, you kinda missed the point of my comment. The thread is 3 months old, so by now the OP will probably have made their decision and bought their phone and decided for themselves if it was worth it or not. That's why it doesn't matter anymore.

 

[MegaBassBX]

In the UK, TMobile runs on the EE network. Whilst TMo doesn't do LTE themselves, they do offer a free upgrade to an EE contract which will have LTE.

As for America, I don't know any specific details.

@MegaBassBX, you kinda missed the point of my comment. The thread is 3 months old, so by now the OP will probably have made their decision and bought their phone and decided for themselves if it was worth it or not. That's why it doesn't matter anymore.

Actually I kinda felt that I missed your point I just wasn't sure, so I said what I said , so I apologize .

 

[mrfatso]

You guys are lucky, i pay $80 a month for 10gb of data on a 4g device that is only giving 3g speeds. I'm in a very small town and 4g is all around but not in my town, wish I could get it.

for us, that 39.90 will only give us 2GB worth.

We have nothing in between 4GB and 12GB plan... for 4GB, we will be paying 99.90 and $205 for a 12GB plan.

Source: https://www.singtelshop.com/mobile/plans.jsf

btw, that's the same for iphone as well.

Now about starhub and m1, the other 2 teleco in singapore, i am not sure about starhub, but m1 is definitely more expensive.