LTE: The X-FACTOR

clohamon

Here's a simple competition.

OFCOM the UK communications regulator has advised the public that benchmark average download speeds from LTE will be 6 Mb/s (Megabits per second). The object of this competition is to find a wild claim that is substantially higher than that. The multiple by which the claim exceeds the OFCOM estimate is the 'X' . The 'FACTOR' is a weighting used to allow for whether the claim is for, peak (1), average (2), or minimum (3), speed.

Example: a claim of "18 Mb/s - minimum" gives an X-FACTOR of 9

18 (claim) × 3 ("minimum" weighting) ÷ 6 (Ofcom benchmark) = 9


Rules:

1. The object of the competition is to find and post here, a claim from a 'qualifying person' with a high X-FACTOR.
2. A 'qualifying person' must be working in Ireland and must be a politician, mobile network provider or industry spokesman, tech journalist, or government or State official; basically someone who ought to know better.
3. A speed described as "up to" or "theoretical"will be taken to mean peak.
4. The claim must be verifiable and preferably from a publicly available source.
5. The rules and weightings may be changed at any time.
6. The closing date: When sanity returns.
7. The winner : will receive a highly desirable Huawei E220 USB modem, well-used and locked to the O2 network - if I can find it.

Current leaders in reverse order are:-

3rd: Robert Finnegan, CEO Three Ireland - X-FACTOR 30

Claim 180Mb/s - peak

2nd: Pat Rabbitte TD, Minister for Communications - X-FACTOR 35

Claim 70 Mb/s - minimum Correction below.

1st: Alex Chisholm, Commissioner, ComReg - X-FACTOR 50

Claim 300Mb/s - peak

watty

5MHz Channel, as per Ireland's Auction on 800MHz is actually 1/4 of the Ofcom speeds as they presume a 20MHz channel

So multiply all X Factor results by 3 for Ireland's 800MHz!

Shame on Comreg and Pat Rabbitte. They shouldn't be trying to sell Mobile.

clohamon

Its a relative index so I'll just leave it simple.


Apologies to Pat Rabbitte. Incorrectly given an X-FACTOR of 35 above. In fact his claim was '30Mb/s - minimum' in relation to the National Broadband Plan.

This means that Robert Finnegan leap-frogs Pat into second place.

The new order.

3rd: Pat Rabbitte TD, Minister for Communications - X-FACTOR 15
Claim 30 Mb/s - minimum
2nd: Robert Finnegan, CEO Three Ireland - X-FACTOR 30
Claim 180Mb/s - peak
1st: Alex Chisholm, Commissioner, ComReg - X-FACTOR 50
Claim 300Mb/s - peak

clohamon

The LTE X-FACTOR welcomes Niall Kitson of Techcentral.ie to the leader board, just edgeing Minister Rabbitte out of 3rd place

Niall reckons "LTE offers a theoretical maximum download speed of 100Mb/s (as fast as many fibre connections in the Irish market)."


The new order

4th: Pat Rabbitte TD, Minister for Communications - X-FACTOR 15
Claim 30 Mb/s - minimum
3rd: Niall Kitson, TechCentral .ie - X-FACTOR 16
Claim 100Mb/s - peak
2nd: Robert Finnegan, CEO Three Ireland - X-FACTOR 30
Claim 180Mb/s - peak
1st: Alex Chisholm, Commissioner, ComReg - X-FACTOR 50
Claim 300Mb/s - peak

bealtine

clohamon wrote: »

Niall reckons "LTE offers a theoretical maximum download speed of 100Mb/s (as fast as many fibre connections in the Irish market)."

Poor Niall has been at the kool-aid...

Cheerful Spring

30MB and over is possible but i think one would have to live fairly close to city areas and near to build up towns.

In England some rural areas have jumped from 3meg from 60meg during test runs, but of course very few people were using the network.

I think once we see a working example of 4G in rural Ireland. That likely will be the norm for the rest of rural Ireland.

watty

30Mbs if NO-ONE else is using the sector, it's 20MHz channel (most are 5MHz, so 1/4 speed) AND your signal is nearly perfect.

Peak speeds with no-one using the network are dishonest and misleading.

clohamon

Following his earlier claim of 100Mb/s, Niall Kitson has now upped it to 180Mb/s. He's in joint second place with Robert Finnegan of Three.

"LTE networks can deliver data speeds of 180Mb/s to mobile devices, roughly five times faster than 3G."


The new order
4th: Pat Rabbitte TD, Minister for Communications - X-FACTOR 15
Claim 30 Mb/s - minimum
2nd (Joint): Niall Kitson, TechCentral .ie - X-FACTOR 30
Claim 180Mb/s - peak
2nd (Joint): Robert Finnegan, CEO Three Ireland - X-FACTOR 30
Claim 180Mb/s - peak
1st: Alex Chisholm, Commissioner, ComReg - X-FACTOR 50
Claim 300Mb/s - peak

Cheerful Spring

Posted today. Looks like 4G for rural Ireland is unlikely next five to 7 years at least ( sad really we only care about certain areas of Ireland)

On the bright side the speeds in the demo look impressive. The uploads speeds especially phenomenal. Looks by early Feb or March first place to have 4G will be kilkenny.

The only hope for rural Ireland getting better broadband services, is if the Irish government gets involved.

600 million extra in cash what will they do with, i wonder?

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/item/30522-4g-will-rock-but-the/

watty

The demo is unrealistic.

This is a an irrelevance in terms of Broadband infrastructure. It is for "well off" MOBILE users.

clohamon

The X-Factor welcomes Joe Griffin of the Sunday Business Post.

"4G is based on a technology standard called Long Term Evolution (LTE) that makes use of a spectrum of 900MHz and 1,800MHz to deliver speeds theoretically up to 160Mbps.” - SBP 23/02/2012

The claim came as part of a 4G special report for businesses and private users in which “Joe Griffin sets out what you need to know”

The New Order:

5th: Pat Rabbitte TD, Minister for Communications - X-FACTOR 15
Claim 30 Mb/s - minimum
4th: Joe Griffin - Sunday Business Post, - X-FACTOR 27
Claim 160 Mb/s - peak
2nd (Joint): Niall Kitson, TechCentral .ie - X-FACTOR 30
Claim 180Mb/s - peak
2nd (Joint): Robert Finnegan, CEO Three Ireland - X-FACTOR 30
Claim 180Mb/s - peak
1st: Alex Chisholm, Former Commissioner, ComReg - X-FACTOR 50
Claim 300Mb/s - peak