Nighthawk LTE @ 400Mb speedtest

[nhantenna]

Friday April 20, 2018: "AT&T today said it has launched what it calls 5G Evolution in 117 new markets, bringing the total of pre-5G markets to 141. The company says its 5G Evolution technology can deliver theoretical speeds up to 400 Mbps to properly equipped devices."

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The Nighthawk LTE hotspot is a lead device for AT&T's 5G Evolution in the United States.  Anyone getting 400 Mb speedtest results on their AT&T Nighthawk?

[nhantenna]

The Netgear technical specs state: "Max 1 Gbps download speeds & 150 Mbps upload speeds"  1 Gb = 1000 Mb download.

AT&T's 5G Evolution network however only supports "theoretical speeds up to 400 Mbps".  And we all know what "theoretical" means in computer speak.  It means in the real world you will never see anything close to 400 Mb on AT&T's network.

Let's guess you can get 200 Mb in the real world.  200 Mb real world speedtest on hardware designed for 1000 Mb?  That is a big gap.  Seems like Netgear and AT&T were on different pages regarding what 5G Evolution was supposed to be.

[JSchnee21]

Well, 

(-:  I occassionally get ~100-120Mbit for a few seconds at a time in choice locations (direct line of site to tower less than 1/2 a mile away).  Normally, it's more like 20-60Mbit.  To date, after about 100GB of testing, this unit so far performs about as well as my iPhone 6s.  But, that's largely a limitation of AT&T's network more than anything.

Unfortunately the device doesn't tell me if it's doing carrier aggregation or MIMO or which bands/bandwidth its on so it's difficult to say what is / is not contributing to any particular speed test result.

Since neither Gen1 nor Gen2 of the MR1100 does LAA (Band 46), you won't be getting much more than maybe 200-300Mbit anytime soon.

Here's a nice little table from "Carrier Aggregation Fundamentals For Dummies"

Table 1-1 Aggregated Downlink Bandwidth and Data
Rates for LTE User Equipment Categories
Aggregated Downlink Bandwidth     Downlink Data Rate      Modem Class
10 MHz 75 Mbps
15 MHz 100 Mbps LTE Category 3
20 MHz 150 Mbps LTE Category 4
25 MHz 185 Mbps
30 MHz 225 Mbps
40 MHz 300 Mbps LTE Category 6/7
50 MHz 375 Mbps
60 MHz 450 Mbps LTE Category 9/10
80 MHz 600 Mbps LTE Category 11/12
*Assumes 64‐quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) in the downlink
*The scaling in data rate between 64 QAM and 256 QAM is a factor of 1.33
(8‐bit symbol versus 6‐bit symbol)
*Any bandwidth above 20 MHz requires at least two‐CC CA
*Any bandwidth above 40 MHz requires at least three‐CC CA
*Any bandwidth above 60 MHz requires at least four‐CC CA

So you would need 3XCA @ 20MHZ (64QAM) each all from the SAME tower to theoretically get 450Mbit PHY which, in theory, would give you approx 200-300Mbit at the application level.  Perhaps a bit more if a 256QAM is active.

I'm not even sure AT&T has that much bandwidth of spectrum in very many places.  These maps are a bit dated, but you get the idea:

https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/2016-how-much-lte-spectrum-do-verizon-at-t-t-mobile-and-spri...

-Jonathan

[nhantenna]

"Normally, it's more like 20-60Mbit."

i get about the same....mine is normally 20-50Mbit.

"you won't be getting much more than maybe 200-300Mbit anytime soon."

from a united states RURAL perspective, i do not expect any speed increases beyond 50Mbit peak until true 5G is deployed in RURAL areas.  I don't expect "5G Evolution" CA, unlicensed spectrum use, etc stopgap steps before true 5G is deployed.  my best guess is true 5G will require a different hotspot for starters, and true 5G service may still be years away from RURAL areas.

the concern is are we repeating the RURAL problem again.  where in the recent past RURAL is on DSL 700Kb, while the rest of the United States is 20-50Mbit cable modems.  We might be seeing that disperity again right here before our eyes.  Where RURAL is now stuck on 50Mbit LTE, while the rest of the United States moves to 200-400Mb.  It all comes down to the original problem.  Are the carriers like AT&T willing to invest in less populated areas like RURAL areas.  Time will tell.  All I can tell you for sure at this moment is we have a 1000Mbit modem getting 20-50Mbit service.

[JSchnee21]

To be fair, I did just get a ZTE Velocity 2 as well, and the MR1100 does seem a little bit faster -- perhaps 5-10Mbit.  I'm not sure why this is, from a modem spec perspective, both should have adequate capability to handle whatever AT&T has available under most circumstances.

The Velocity 2 has the Qualcomm x12 where as the Nighthawk has the x16.  But the Velocity 2 is much smaller, has better wifi range, and is so far much more stable.  Even with the recent (March) firmware update from AT&T/Netgear my Nighthawk still usually crashes/hangs at least once per day.

I do really like the Ethernet on the Nighthawk, and the ability to run without the battery.  Connecting an antenna via TS9 to the Velocity 2 does actually seem to help for the Velocity 2.  Not so much for the Nighthawk.  The App and Web Management on the Nighthawk is better than the Velocity 2.

Still holding my breath that Bands 14 and 46 will come to all of the MR1100 models via a firmware update.

Yeah, rural, hmmm, tough to justify from a cost perspetive.  Highspeed cellular is very dense from a tower perspective.  Though I agree, AT&T needs to do a better job of at least having low band LTE everywhere.  When I fall back to 3G most of my modern apps don't really work well/at all given all of the bloat these days.

But at least I have some sort of coverage more or less everywhere unlike on my Tmo hotspot (ZTE 917).  Though they have improved substantially in the last couple years.  I only switched my hotspot to AT&T since it was cheaper on the unlimited plan.  My phones have been on Cingular/CellularOne/AT&T for 24 years now.

-Jonathan

[JSchnee21]

Interestingly, I take the PA turnpike home to NJ which skirts across the top of the Philadelphia suburbs.  Speeds this afternoon were way faster than they ever have ben before hitting 80-130Mbit across several stretches on my 6s desipite heavy traffic volume.