Sprint News
Glad to see some real numbers showing up now. 
That truly is amazing, higher than I expected to be honest with you.
Kevin:
Don't get your hopes up. There are 2 problems with that prior post of connection speed.
First, it's NOT Baltimore...it's Chicago. Chicago has a CLOSED network for now. Soft launch is still a closed-network. Secondly, I've seen friends do speed tests from their Baltimore locals last night and they've posted their screen shots to my email. They're numbers are more like 3Mbps down and 1Mbps up. Also, when they do their speed tests, it doesn't say "Sprint PCS" as the ISP...it instead says either "Xohm" or "Unknown".
So, personally, I'm VERY skeptical of that earlier "screen shot" of just how fast WiMAX is. And keep in mind, I actually am impressed by 3Mbps! But 5Mbps on a non-opened network? That, in my view, is simply meaningless. Let's see what speeds are in Baltimore at this time in 6 months and see whether all of the previous WiMAX hype was even deserved, before we start heralding it as the "WIRELESS REVOLUTION" as some wish to claim.
Always the pessimist Dejan =P
Normally I would agree with you on the closed network thing, but WiMax world is in town right now and you can bet, well... At least I would hope, Sprint is showing this thing off there, so I'm sure theres some users rather than just me. Plus how long has Chicago been a test market for Sprint employees?
You're telling me this doesn't impress you? Whether there's 1 or 100 users, 6Mb OTA is amazing. I don't even get this good on my 6Mb DSL line at home, I ran a speed test when I got home and it didn't even break 4500kb/s .
If I weren't so lazy, I'd head down to mc cormick place and try it out there, but then I'm sure you'll just say Sprint optomized it for WiMax world, just like all the people who say that phones work in the stores because "That's how they get you"
Linenoise, If you wanted to take my post as a personal attack, you can. But, honestly, it wasn't intended as such. And, more importantly, you completely missed the point. Finally, and most importantly if you ask me, you very glaringly missed my point that I was already impressed with Baltimore's 3.3Mbps down and 1.1Mbps up speeds. And that's with several friends of mine that live in that area. Those are serious HARD numbers on an OPENED network. Now, could Chicago have gotten a few improvements in their WiMAX hardware to boost their overall WiMAX speed? I suppose anything IS possible. But still...I was and am impressed with the real world speeds that my friends are getting. Oh...and as a side note, I have several friends that have cable connections and mate those cable connections to wifi routerrs. They are actually consistently transmitting data at a relatively slow 4Mbps during high traffic on the cable connection, and easily move up to a blistering (at least by current standards) 9.1Mbps around 12am to 3am (using their PS3s...I've gotten as high as 6.3Mbps on one of their networks using my HP Laptop). Granted, we have to have essentially direct line of sight to achieve those speeds, but it isn't THAT hard to do. DSL, btw, is...by nature...inherently slower in general...esp the further away one is from the main trunk line. Not so with cable, though cable speed suffers as more users use the connection. To conclude, if you're getting those speeds consistently, that's great. I'm happy for you. But, be sure to let us all know what speeds you get once the Chicago area 1) opens to the public for WiMAX digestion, and 2) has been up and running for at least 6 months. If the speeds are even around current Baltimore speeds, then and only then will I be floored. For the moment, I'll just remain....impressed.
Closed networks are notoriously faster. Period. After all, look at intranetwork speed tests versus internetwork speed tests done by ANYONE. Intranetwork speeds are ALWAYS faster (usually on an order of 2 to as large a 5 times faster) than their internetwork speed tested companions. Why? Simple: Fewer protocols and (obviously) far less traffic. And you brought up a great point: the WiMAX craze is in Chicago...so why would you think that Sprint wouldn't try to bump up the speed a bit to show off? After all, everyone and their mother has heard that WiMAX is easily capable of 10Mbps on the downlink and about 5-7Mbps on the uplink, at least according to Intel, BUT that's ONLY when the network has little to NO TRAFFIC on it. But why take Intel's word? After all, they only CREATED WiMAX in the first place.Message Edited by quasijedi on 10-03-2008 06:14 PM
Those ar all very valid arguments I must admit. But the simple fact that there is that kind of throughput wirlessly on a WWAN setup is amazing to me. Around here I have 6 mbps cable through comcast and let me tell you I almost never get the full downlink speed.
This is what I just got:
But that is due to the Speedboost, only good for the first 10-20MB... which the test is well within. Actual throughput on an ftp file transfer is usually around 3500 sadly.
Going through the EVDO card last time if I remember I got around 1300 down 800 up while still, haven't tried it while moving.
Just throwing out my personal experience. Even if it is a closed network, those kind of speeds while mobile are astounding to me.
EDIT: Just for kicks I decided to use the Chicago server instead... I had a lower ping and higher download wth...
Message Edited by halcyoncmdr on 10-03-2008 04:24 PM
Kevin:
Yeah...my friends, as I said, don't typically get to those HIGH END consistent speeds unless it's like 2am or so (when pretty much everyone else is asleep).
As for closed network speeds, 5Mbps wasn't all that bad, but still...it's a closed network. If Intel can get 10Mbps 5 years ago when they were testing WiMAX on their closed network, I would have hoped Sprint would have gotten more than merely 5Mbps. Plus, more recently (last year, if memory serves), Intel demonstrated "in-lab" speeds for WiMAX were actually capable of reaching 100Mbps. Now THAT is simply INSANE! Heck, 10Mbps standing still is insane...and being able to get over 2Mbps while driving around is just as great, though getting up around...20Mbps while on the move would be simply unbelievable.
In the mean time...we'll see how things go. I'm actually glad to see Baltimore getting some good/great speeds (esp on the upload). I hope that the more this thing gets built out, the higher the transmission speeds will become. After all, it is a MIMO network after all. :)
Now...if only Sprint would get Michigan up and running on WiMAX already.
Expert
says:
I gotta say I'm impressed, along with EVERYONE else in my office. You guys need to promote that **** out of this thing.
This is a "WIRELESS REVOLUTION"