InterceptRadio.com Forums

... is 4G?
I'm about to (again) find myself in a somewhat rural predicament except this time there will be cell service. Unknown if 4G coverage. Probably.
Last time I used Wildblue (only option), OK but don't bother to 'play video'.
What is 4G comparable to? Cable? DSL?
Are there any cell carriers nowadays who let you tether a laptop to a cell phone?
I'm too lazy to research myself. I hoping somebody here can share personal experience.
Rural= Grocery store is 40+ miles away, not to be confused with Seattle rural.

Starbucks= :beer: :chaingun:

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Ive measured 30/30mbps with my Droid... It can slow up pretty good in areas where there is lots of use.

Yes you can tether. If you grab one of those "jetpack"s such as a mifi you can keep it up high or outside where the service might be better and utilize the wifi connection on your laptop. Ive sent my MiFi up on a helium balloon once for a test. Worked pretty good actually.

Otherwise yes- various phones allow tethering (usually for an extra charge) but I think it depends on your carrier as to what they allow and for how much.

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"A well regulated breakfast, being necessary to the healthy start of the day, the right of the people to keep and eat food shall not be infringed."

Just used speedtest.net with and without wifi:

4G only- 38.6megs download; 22.5megs upload

4G/wifi: 27.2megs download; 12.3megs upload

4G- AT&T

Wifi- Comcast

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President-in-Exile, Seattle Area Radio Communications And Scanner Traffic Intercept Crew (SARCASTIC)
Don't feel bad if you can't use your STD100/200; there are still people using Digital Frequency Search!
Bunnery definition for the under-fives

AT&T LTE is pretty damn fast. I can get ~45megs with full LTE signal in SE Bellevue (near Boeing.) It's unfortunately not that great of a signal at home...

My results were with 3 out of 5 bars signal strength, or -100db on the 4G, and -43db on the wifi (5 feet from the router).

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President-in-Exile, Seattle Area Radio Communications And Scanner Traffic Intercept Crew (SARCASTIC)
Don't feel bad if you can't use your STD100/200; there are still people using Digital Frequency Search!
Bunnery definition for the under-fives

That's not bad.
It may come down to which phone/device allows to hook up to a roof antenna.
And which carrier provides service.

I'm aware of Speedtest, but w/o a device yet it doesn't do much good.
Wildblue was a joke on Speedtest. Somewhere between dial-up and dsl.

I would be ideal to only pay for one plan (cell phone) and when at the house tether to a laptop to enjoy the 'real' internet.

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Different server, different results, still only 4G:

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President-in-Exile, Seattle Area Radio Communications And Scanner Traffic Intercept Crew (SARCASTIC)
Don't feel bad if you can't use your STD100/200; there are still people using Digital Frequency Search!
Bunnery definition for the under-fives

I wonder which, if any, have the ability to sport an external antenna.

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So 99% of the newer cell phones do not. Some may but only if you can remove the battery cover. If you haven't noticed recently, a lot of vendors are going to sealed battery compartments -- so you can't even tinker with the phone internally.

A lot of the older phones do have the mcx connectors for antennas. You can buy these for about $6 on Amazon from China/Japan.

The MBB devices (Mobile Broadband) USB modems do usually have one. With LTE though, the internal antennas are good enough without any external antenna.

I read the new Moto-X is made in Texas.

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4G and 4G LTE are not the same.

4G is really 3.5G (G being the generation of technology) but the marketing lawyers didn't think calling it 3.5G would sell many devices, so they branded it 4G.

4G LTE is really just LTE; it's own beast but a damn fast one.

For example, an iPhone 4S will support 4G service (with modem firmware updated) but will only be marginally faster the iPhone 4 which only supports 3G.

The iPhone 5 or any other device that shows "LTE" as the class of service flag will be more like genuine broadband, but is of course still subject to carrier network congestion.

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I taste copper.
Comments, views, opinions - and trails of destruction - are my own.

I have a 4G LTE device enroute/shipping.

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