In reply to a post by jchamier:

I'd call it 4G++++ given some of the speeds seen. I have read others describe it as adding an 8 lane motorway from the mast to the phone, but keeping the rural track from the phone to the mast.
Speeds that high only possible in really good reception, 250 to 350 seems more typical today, and I put that down to the n78 band.

I was seeing a ping time of around 44ms on a GigaCube. Which was well a bit disappointing.

Wire speed downloads around 325 Mbps and upload of 42 Mbps from an internal position behind glass albeit about 3 stories up - Zone 2 London, around Highbury last August. I remember balcony testing that and getting about 480 Mbps in August 2019. The cell was pretty new at the time. No longer there and the GigaCube contract has run its course....

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

I was seeing a ping time of around 44ms on a GigaCube. Which was well a bit disappointing.

That sounds like LTE but maybe just because the data goes through the LTE core (EPC), rather than a new 5G core?? I'm assuming Vodafone as you said GigaCube, and I know VF have been using DSS to share spectrum with LTE in the capital (and maybe elsewhere) so perhaps not as much capacity available when needed.

Wire speed downloads around 325 Mbps and upload of 42 Mbps from an internal position behind glass albeit about 3 stories up - Zone 2 London, around Highbury last August. I remember balcony testing that and getting about 480 Mbps in August 2019. The cell was pretty new at the time. No longer there and the GigaCube contract has run its course....

Good speeds, and I wonder long term if 5G will be more to replace fixed line, or for mobile devices. Watching to see.

In reply to a post by GonePostal:

Always happy to defer to those with greater knowledge and experience (and who carry credibility on these pages).

I'm a total amateur, but have had time to read lots, doesn't mean I'm right!

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

I was seeing a ping time of around 44ms on a GigaCube. Which was well a bit disappointing.

That sounds like LTE but maybe just because the data goes through the LTE core (EPC), rather than a new 5G core?? I'm assuming Vodafone as you said GigaCube, and I know VF have been using DSS to share spectrum with LTE in the capital (and maybe elsewhere) so perhaps not as much capacity available when needed.

Wire speed downloads around 325 Mbps and upload of 42 Mbps from an internal position behind glass albeit about 3 stories up - Zone 2 London, around Highbury last August. I remember balcony testing that and getting about 480 Mbps in August 2019. The cell was pretty new at the time. No longer there and the GigaCube contract has run its course....

Good speeds, and I wonder long term if 5G will be more to replace fixed line, or for mobile devices. Watching to see.

This thread a few weeks ago, the OP there based in Manchester on Three 5G was seeing better download rates, “...touching 600 Mbps” but ping times and jitter was remarkably similar (also upload speed) to what I had seen in London on Vodafone GigaCube.

Given the correlation across providers and location, I reckon the round trip time limitation at least is an artefact of using a ‘legacy’ EPC core architecture, rather than anything Vodafone may be doing with sharing of LTE spectrum in the capital. Unless Three are doing similar? On the other hand if/when native SA 5G becomes available (together with more NR bandwidth as you noted) I’d fully expect RTT to reduce down to single digits.

Saying that there may be further improvements that could be made on the existing ‘hybrid’ implementation of 5G. Ping times could reduce by half with optimisation of EPC, given that 15ms ping times are supposedly within the realms of possibility on NSA.

Edited by Pheasant (Mon 05-Apr-21 10:28:21)