LTE service has been randomly popping up on my iPhone 5 in the North Austin area these past couple of days. Note that Sprint LTE has not yet launched in town.
It only lasts for a few minutes, and the speeds may differ from what we’ll get once it goes live. But the fact that they are testing is a sign that the launch is imminent.
Proof:
Obviously, when I saw LTE, I had to run a speed test. Speeds were a little disappointing compared with what I’ve read about LTE; but are about a million times better than the notoriously slow Sprint 3G service. Boy I hate CDMA.
For comparison’s sake, here are other results I’ve gotten. They vary from run to run and each run depends on a lot of factors, like how far you are sitting from the cell phone tower or WiFi station, or how much other network traffic there is at the moment. But they do provide a good idea of what to expect:
| Provider | Ping (ms) | Download (Mbps) | Upload (Mbps) |
| Sprint LTE (Austin, test) | 76 | 7.77 | 0.71 |
| Sprint 3G (Austin) | 332 | 0.21 | 0.44 |
| Sprint LTE (Woodlands) | 56 | 7.95 | 9.44 |
| Home (Time Warner Cable) | 85 | 16.90 | 2.18 |
| Work (jealous?) | 48 | 48.35 | 23.76 |
| AT&T LTE (Austin) | 57 | 30.05 | 19.45 |
As you can see, 3G is soooo slow you can almost hear this. Can’t wait for LTE to go live.
Update: Reader Rolando O. sent a screenshot of SpeedTest results in AT&T LTE. They are amazing. I’ve added the numbers to the table.