Hang on for 4G? Just get an S3? Advice

Not from day one it won't.

The very nature of it means you get far better range and coverage. So in the areas they enable it. It will be far better coverage than 3G from day one. Just depends if they activate it in your area.

I somehow doubt that. And even if it is, why can't they get the previous tech sorted before rolling out something new which is realistically a long time away.

Becuase it's not the same tech. 3G needs more masts, 4g doesnt. It travels far further. Why would you want them to sort 3G out, when 4g is superior in so many ways.
 
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There's also the fact that the Americans are constantly complaining about 4G coverage being dodgy, and the fact it rags the life out of your battery. :(
 
There's also the fact that the Americans are constantly complaining about 4G coverage being dodgy, and the fact it rags the life out of your battery. :(

America is huge. They have poor reception on everything.
The first phone sued stupidly power hungry chips. Something new phone releases won't have, they'll have new gen chips, which are far more power efficient.
 
The very nature of it means you get far better range and coverage. So in the areas they enable it. It will be far better coverage than 3G from day one. Just depends if they activate it in your area.

But the fact it's a brand new service on new equipment will mean that realistically, that probably won't be the case. Look at BT Infinity for example, theoretically it should immediately be faster and better but teething problems can and do occur which means the first people to jump onboard are usually the ones who suffer the most.
 
But the fact it's a brand new service on new equipment will mean that realistically, that probably won't be the case. Look at BT Infinity for example, theoretically it should immediately be faster and better but teething problems can and do occur which means the first people to jump onboard are usually the ones who suffer the most.

Well you sign upto a new 24 month contract and get suck. I'll wait and see how it unfolds and I recommend the op does the same, we're talking 6 weeks to hopfully find out price and find out more about the roll out. It's not long is it. The op is clearly interested in 4g, why would you sign up to a 24minth contract. When it's out soon. Even half way through the contract it'll almost be a year of roll out.
 
Except you also need to wait for 4G phones to be sold here. Until there is decent coverage there is little point in manufacturers releasing 4G handsets here.
You can also bet the carriers will charge a small fortune for 4G.

I reckon we are a year away from having worthwhile coverage at a vaguely sensible price.
 
I've just signed up to a 24 month contract. Why? Well my 3G phone does everything I need it to - sure, 4G might be quicker, but I don't need it.

I'd also echo the sentiments in here about day one - in pretty much anything technology related, early adopters pay a high price both in cash and also in quality. You've got a cracking selection of phones at the moment, with S3, One S, One X, and Nexus all offering great items. Go with those.
 
3g in the UK acutal offers very good speeds compared to some places like America, it depends where you live but in london I'm getting 8-10mb which works perfectly fine for me. If you can currently get a decent 3g speeds then I think its ok, 4g does have many advantages but currently there is so many unknown factors and I think its better to have a good 3g phone.

In america 3g was horrid I've seen it max out at around 2-3mb more many many reviews which is slow for us here in UK, and many of the major cities 3g is just tapped out ot the point were you cant get a signal so there is a much bigger need for a 4g phone.
 
4g is just another way to milk the customer. I see don't the point of 4g speeds when HSDPA is already giving me good speeds (2000kbps +). Why would you pay the premium, when latency is the real issue. So even with the higher speeds the initial lag/delay will still be there.
 
4g is just another way to milk the customer. I see don't the point of 4g speeds when HSDPA is already giving me good speeds (2000kbps +). Why would you pay the premium, when latency is the real issue. So even with the higher speeds the initial lag/delay will still be there.

Latency on LTE is greatly reduced.
 
4g is just another way to milk the customer. I see don't the point of 4g speeds when HSDPA is already giving me good speeds (2000kbps +). Why would you pay the premium, when latency is the real issue. So even with the higher speeds the initial lag/delay will still be there.

4g has better latency, much wider range so you have a better singal more often and it can handle more customers form what Ive read.
 
In theory, LTE should bring about a much better wireless data network. Speeds are higher, latency is lower, coverage is wider, capacity is bigger and the whole thing is more reliable. This isn't just the future of mobile phones - it's the future of rural broadband.

The problem is, it won't happen like that. Wider coverage and increased capacity won't improve signal reliability - it will just see the networks erecting fewer masts. We will get the faster speeds and lower latencies, but we'll pay through the nose for it.
 
Eh, maybe Satchef. Sites are leased with the long view in mind so a lot of the cost is sunk. The networks have a requirement (one which O2 actually missed for 3G) of 98% coverage for 4G so I wouldn't look at it that way, they will meet the obligation.

LTE is fairly power sapping unfortunately. That's not really to knock EE, it's just that it's currently more suited for dongles until we get better at making the radios. Same as 3G handsets really, I have some crazy prototypes from Nokia that used to be flat inside 4 hours when we first deployed 3G that were the size of a half a house brick.

I havn't seen the latest rollout for 4G but unless it changed dramatically it's a mirror of HSDPA

Edit: no, there is no hello kitty edition coming out.
 
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