Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

US Rank Drops To 55th In 4G LTE Speeds

Posted by timothy on from the double-nickels-on-the-dime dept.

alphadogg writes: The U.S. has fallen to No. 55 in LTE performance as speeds rise rapidly in countries that have leapfrogged some early adopters of the popular cellular system. The average download speed on U.S. 4G networks inched up to 10Mbps (bits per second) in the June-August quarter, according to research company OpenSignal. That was an improvement from 9Mbps in the previous quarter, but the country's global ranking fell from 43rd as users in other countries enjoyed much larger gains.

15 of 70 comments (clear)

  1. USA! USA! by PvtVoid · · Score: 4, Funny

    In your face, Indonesia!

  2. i can't LTE by turkeydance · · Score: 2

    55!

    1. Re:i can't LTE by TWX · · Score: 2

      Sorry, I tried to watch that music video but it kept pausing to buffer... Maybe I'll try again when I'm at home on the WIFI...

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  3. On the other hand... by pushing-robot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    USA is near the top in LTE penetration. It's easy to have high speeds when you've got the tower to yourself...

    --
    How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
    1. Re:On the other hand... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Funny

      USA is near the top in LTE penetration

      So, everybody is getting screwed by the carriers then?

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:On the other hand... by danbob999 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      pretty sure LTE penetration is high in South Korea and they still have high speed.

    3. Re:On the other hand... by danbob999 · · Score: 2

      The US is #10 for coverage:

      Subscribers in the U.S. are on LTE 78 percent of the time, on average, making the country No. 10 for what OpenSignal calls "time coverage."

    4. Re:On the other hand... by pushing-robot · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There are several potential reasons for high average speeds, including:

      * The country has built an excellent LTE network.

      * The network is underutilized because LTE phones or plans are expensive or not yet widely adopted.

      * The network has limited coverage; a country with fast LTE in cities and 2G in sparser districts will counterintuitively have a higher average LTE speed than another country with fast LTE in cities and slower LTE in the back country.

      * The country is as a whole densely populated with few rural areas pulling down the average speed.

      In short, 'average LTE speed' is a rather useless datum without the necessary context.

      --
      How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
    5. Re:On the other hand... by gmack · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or in most of the other cities, or along the highways between the cities. South Korea's coverage seems to be rather good actually

  4. Sure 55 *sounds* bad... by The-Ixian · · Score: 3, Funny

    But, hey, we are still in the top 1/3 out of ALL countries in the world...

    --
    My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
  5. Re:Size Matters by Teun · · Score: 2

    It's got nothing to do with the size of a country.
    It does have everything to do with the population density and the populated parts (especially the coasts) of the US are no different to certain EU countries.
    The US does have vast areas that are sparsely populated were coverage is going to be expensive, such areas are less prevalent in western Europe.
    I am not sure how they calculated but am fairly sure that availability is going to add up more in the denser populated areas.

    --
    "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
  6. Re:Size Matters by AK+Marc · · Score: 2

    That would be applicable if carriers tried to cover an entire country with a single tower. Nope, they do what they do everywere in the world. More towers in more populated places, fewer in less populate areas. The total density of the USA isn't that low, and most of the people and coverage is concentrated in cities, just like the rest of the world.

    There is no "size" issue.

    --
    Learn to love Alaska
  7. Re:How was the survey conducted? by Harlequin80 · · Score: 2

    I live in a semi-rural area outside of Brisbane and just pulled 26.87 Mbps down 21.89 Mbps on Testra according to ookla Speedtest. At the same time my ADSL is synced at 22.696 down .940 up. I'm lucky though as the digital rim is literally at the end of my driveway.

  8. 10..9 mbs. how about ZERO mbs by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 2

    In the dallas fort worth airport hyatt many brands of phones get no reception at all. it's a joke.

    It's annoying to go from the "modern world" back to the 1980s when you travel about 10 miles.

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  9. Rank is meaningless by Solandri · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If #1-54 have average LTE speeds of 11 Mbps, then 10 Mbps is not that bad.
    If #1-54 have average LTE speeds of 90 Mbps, then 10 Mbps sucks.

    Rank on an arbitrary list is meaningless. If you want to compare against a distribution, compare to the distribution itself. Not some arbitrary index. The distribution is linked in TFA and is vastly more informative than TFA or TFS. In fact it's one of the best interactive data presentations I've ever seen. It should've been linked as TFA, not some article talking about it.

    Most of the countries are clustered between 8-18 Mbps. #43 (the previous U.S. rank) is 13 Mbps. If the U.S. were to increase its LTE speed by 50% to 15 Mbps it would jump to #28. And if it were to double its speed to 20 Mbps, it would jump to #12.