Yep, Telstra's 4G in 4G zones is definitely worthwhile

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 01 February 2012 12:41

Opinion and Analysis

If you're in a 4G coverage area and you're sporting a 4G LTE capable device, it should come as no surprise to discover that 4G devices deliver vastly better ping and download speeds than 3G devices.

It's one thing for a telco to deliver a new 4G network, but it's another thing as to whether it actually delivers on its promises, or not.

Telstra's 4G LTE network is the only true 4G game in town, at least when it comes to substantial 'CBD' coverage in capital cities and at least 80 regional areas around Australia, and had Telstra's 4G speeds been little faster than its Next G speeds, it probably would have been false advertising.

However, every speed test conducted and reported on in the press using either Telstra's 4G USB modem, or on its HTC Velocity smartphone, when in a 4G zone, has genuinely shown vastly faster speeds than are attainable using 3G modems or smartphones.

I've also been able to test Telstra's 4G USB modem in both Sydney and Canberra, and in 4G zones, the results are smoking hot and superfast.

So, it was with some interest that I came upon Gizmodo's article entitled 'Telstra's 4G vs 3G: is it worthwhile?' and while my initial instinct was to say 'yes, without doubt, if you're in a 4G zone', it was worth reading the article to find out what it said - which you should do as well, especially if you want to see the raw data that was collected.

In short, the answer seems to be 'yes, without doubt, if you're in a 4G zone' - or at least, that's how I've interpreted it.  

Interestingly, a test was conducted in the outer Sydney suburb of Hornsby, which is not a 4G area, and here we could see that Telstra's 4G USB modem, in DC-HSPA+ mode, delivered ping speeds and download speeds surprisingly close to 4G results, although with an upload speed of only around 2Mbps, rather than the 10Mbps+ upload speeds normally seen when connecting at 4G LTE speeds.

The HTC Velocity's non-4G results in Hornsby weren't at the same level as the 4G USB modem, so it may well be that the most worthwhile 4G device for the moment is that 4G USB modem.

So'¦ it's nice to see a report essentially 'proving' that the claims of 4G speeds and performance are, at least for now, more than holding up, and, at least in Hornsby, on that particular test, a 4G modem in 3G DC-HSPA+ mode also did incredibly well, even though it -wasn't- in a 4G zone.  

Still, it's exactly what you would have expected from the service if you were a new customer, so if you feel the need for speed, and genuinely spend a lot of time in 4G-equipped areas'¦ 4G delivers well above and beyond what 3G delivers, and for now, that means Telstra, with Optus and Vodafone still to make good on their 4G promises.