Earth’s oldest LTE network is less than six years old, but the technology is growing up so fast it’s comparable to that one boy everyone knew who was already shaving by the time he started big school…as if something has gone wrong and he’s growing up in dog years.
To string this questionable analogy out even fur ther, much like our oddly mature and hirsute young friend, 4G already appears a bit past it as far as some are concerned, and the new, fresh-faced 5G can’t come along soon enough.
For most though, 4G is just starting to come of age, and "we’re seeing awe-inspiring data rates in seemingly unlikely places," wrote coverage-checking app maker OpenSignal in its ‘State of LTE’ report this week.
Don’t panic, OpenSignal, it’s perfectly natural but it wouldn’t hurt to invest in some deodorant. Also, by all means take up the guitar, but don’t inflict it on anyone until you know how to play it properly.
Already looking old enough to be served in a pub, and therefore by default the coolest kids in class, are South Korea and Japan.
According to OpenSignal, South Korean mobile customers are connected to LTE 97% of the time. South Korean operator LG Uplus is the top-ranked telco, its customers being connected to LTE 99.6% of the time.
"Instead of mapping out specific geographic areas where a signal is available, our metric looks at the proportion of time a user has access to the LTE network," explained OpenSignal. "That gives a more accurate look at how real-world users are being served by their provider."
Japan also scores highly with 90%, followed by Hong Kong and Kuwait, which both score 86%, then Singapore and Uruguay, which each notched up 84%. Completing the top 10 are Kazakhstan (81%), the Netherlands (80%), Bahrain (79%), and Sweden (78%). The U.S. sits just outside the cool clique with 77%.
The U.K. is definitely not part of the in-crowd. With a score of 50%, the world’s fifth-largest economy by GDP, according to the International Monetary Fund, ranks 52nd.
"There are several operators that clearly have work to do when it comes to providing a consistent 4G connection," said OpenSignal.
Iliad’s Free needs to pull its socks up: it ranks bottom in Europe with a time-on-LTE score of 26%. However, h anging on a coat-peg by their underpants elastic, lacking both lunch money and dignity, is Indonesia’s XL Axiata, which scored just 19%, leaving it in last place overall.
XL Axiata launched its network on 900-MHz spectrum in December 2014, and so far has attracted 1.2 million customers, according to a recent Jakarta Post report. It is also rolling out LTE at 1800 MHz in a bid to improve performance.
And Indonesia is faring better when it comes to LTE than regional neighbour Thailand.
Having taken an age to allocate 3G spectrum, the government is keen to make a better fist of selling off 4G spectrum. This week the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) revealed that six companies, including the Thailand’s main mobile operators, have applied to take part in its 900-MHz auction.
Russia too made headway with its latest spectrum auction this week, as the country’s four main mobile operators lined up for its 1800-MHz sell-off. Regulator Roscomnadzor is auctioning 10 lots of spectrum in nine regions. The lowest starting price is just 500,000 roubles (just under €8,000 at the exchange rate in July when the prices were announced) for 1 MHz of paired spectrum in the Permyakia territory, while 15 MHz of spectrum in Dagestan will start at RUB240.4 million (€3.8 million).
Meanwhile, Mexico aims to auction 80 MHz of AWS spectrum in January, and called for public comments on its plans.
Mexico currently sits 32nd in OpenSignal’s ranking of time connected to LTE, but the release of more spectrum could see it climb the table.
In terms of raw LTE speed, New Zealand is top of the pile, with average downlink throughput of 36 Mbps, followed by Singapore with 33 Mbps.
"In New Zealand, Spark and Vodafone have launched LTE on two frequency bands each, delivering an awful lot of 4G capacity," said OpenSignal.
Japan, one of the kings of consistent coverage, is bereft like a jock in a maths class, with an average downlink speed of 14 Mbps, good enough for 34th place.
"Some of the earliest adopters of LTE like the U.S., Japan and Germany are starting to fall behind in terms of data performance," said OpenSignal. In part they are the victims of their own success, with networks becoming contended in some areas.
"In comparison, newer networks in South America and Europe are more lightly loaded," the company said.
Indeed, 12 of the top 20 countries by LTE downlink speeds are in Europe.
Just like growing up, with LTE, you’ll get there in the end, as my mother used to say to me.
What they don’t tell you at the time is that ‘there’ will eventually turn into hair sprouting from nostrils, feet, and back, but that’s not a suitable topic for a Friday Review.
