Flow LTE

[Nathan77791]

60-90 mbps for lime
30-40 mbps for digicel

I don't know if that has anything to do with the load on the particular tower or what.

I can easily get 20-30 mbps on 1 bar signal with lime.

Yes Load congestion on a particular tower influences data speeds. But Flow LTE has such a massive capacity behind it. Users won't see much of an impact on Thier usage. Digicel on the other hand, struggles with slow speeds. And severe lack of capacity.

[Kwapster]

agreed...i wouldnt even compare them both in the LTE regard. It's just different levels.

[khat17]

Don't remember if I posted this before. But Digicel wants you to pay extra for their LTE service whereas FLOW just gives it to you as long as your device supports it. The LTE plans Digicel has is also criminal in comparison.

[Kwapster]

Don't remember if I posted this before. But Digicel wants you to pay extra for their LTE service whereas FLOW just gives it to you as long as your device supports it. The LTE plans Digicel has is also criminal in comparison.

"criminal in comparison" pretty much sums up digicel as a whole. They really can "afford" to do better than they are doing.

[Nathan77791]

Don't remember if I posted this before. But Digicel wants you to pay extra for their LTE service whereas FLOW just gives it to you as long as your device supports it. The LTE plans Digicel has is also criminal in comparison.

Digicel still doing that?. They announced last year that they would no longer charge separately for LTE data vs 3G. But seeing how much in debt they are, I wouldn't be surprised if they reimplement the act. I notice that they increased the data nights from $20 to $30.

[Brandysull]

60-90 mbps for lime
30-40 mbps for digicel

I don't know if that has anything to do with the load on the particular tower or what.

I can easily get 20-30 mbps on 1 bar signal with lime.

20-30 Mbit/s on FLOW is like breathing... Here's a truly amazing test from Ironshore in Montego Bay.


FLOW is, again, widely deploying LTE Band 2 in all areas. Peak speeds touch up to 190 Mbit/s as far as I've seen and the network plans to build out capacity and coverage for the foreseeable future.

[Nathan77791]

20-30 Mbit/s on FLOW is like breathing... Here's a truly amazing test from Ironshore in Montego Bay.


FLOW is, again, widely deploying LTE Band 2 in all areas. Peak speeds touch up to 190 Mbit/s as far as I've seen and the network plans to build out capacity and coverage for the foreseeable future.

Hey Brandy, let me ask you something. I was speaking with a Digicel data doctor, and he was saying that the reasons Flow has these speeds. Is because their Network is heavily underutilized. He went on to inform me, that Digicel has 1.8 million active smartphone data users and increasing. I said to him that Flow has the capacity on their Network to cope with future growth in subscribers.

He replied by saying that Flow has capacity because it controls the fiber coming in the country. He also said that this should change, and within two years Digicel will have the capacity needed to expand significantly its fiber broadband and TV services island wide.

I want to know though, if Flow had the same amount of users of data as Digicel. Would it still be able to provide superfast speeds, such as in the screenshot?. I was also informed that the average LTE speeds worldwide is 20-40Mbps, with some countries varying with more. Digicel he says provides average speeds of 35-60Mbps.

[Brandysull]

Hey Brandy, let me ask you something. I was speaking with a Digicel data doctor, and he was saying that the reasons Flow has these speeds. Is because their Network is heavily underutilized. He went on to inform me, that Digicel has 1.8 million active smartphone data users and increasing. I said to him that Flow has the capacity on their Network to cope with future growth in subscribers.

He replied by saying that Flow has capacity because it controls the fiber coming in the country. He also said that this should change, and within two years Digicel will have the capacity needed to expand significantly its fiber broadband and TV services island wide.

I want to know though, if Flow had the same amount of users of data as Digicel. Would it still be able to provide superfast speeds, such as in the screenshot?. I was also informed that the average LTE speeds worldwide is 20-40Mbps, with some countries varying with more. Digicel he says provides average speeds of 35-60Mbps.

What Mr. Data Doctor forgot to mention (or is unaware of) is that FLOW's network speeds are due to selected spectrum acquisitions. I've had the pleasure of speaking with the Spectrum Management Authority who also concurred that the widening gap & vastly different business models from both networks are interesting. From my observation, Digicel refuses to admit that 700 MHz is not the best band for supporting dense geographies with high speed data. Digicel competencies are best seen in remote areas where LTE might be available more readily than FLOW's but such is quickly changing with Band 2 and whatever band FLOW plans to add to add to the mix (which I'm highly certain is Band 5).

I also find the Digicel's representation of the current market externalities as highly disingenuous, Digicel's network is built on Microwave ODUs which do not give them the reliability and scalability of Fibre. FLOW's fibre backbone supports not just them but government and traffic from private & public sector. Digicel has had many a chance to invest in islandwide fibre capacity but, they chose otherwise. I don't know why Digicel feels Liberty Global is threatened by Deep Blue... If only Digicel knew what was coming from Liberty Global & FLOW, they'd be silent.

Onto the question of FLOW & capacity. They would still be able to provide the fast speeds they do now, in fact, they'd have gone to 4x4 MIMO & 256QAM... Liberty Latin America at CANTO affirmed their intention to be the market leader in LTE and they intend to supersede the expectations of their customers. Liberty & FLOW keep up with the level of investment on the network required. Averages on edge of cell for FLOW LTE is at 35 Mbit/s on a unloaded site or more realistically 20 Mbit/s when I'm in an area like Downtown Montego Bay. That is rare however as FLOW's Band 4 LTE provides excellent coverage, I get averages of 60 Mbit/s down and 40 Up.

[Nathan77791]

What Mr. Data Doctor forgot to mention (or is unaware of) is that FLOW's network speeds are due to selected spectrum acquisitions. I've had the pleasure of speaking with the Spectrum Management Authority who also concurred that the widening gap & vastly different business models from both networks are interesting. From my observation, Digicel refuses to admit that 700 MHz is not the best band for supporting dense geographies with high speed data. Digicel competencies are best seen in remote areas where LTE might be available more readily than FLOW's but such is quickly changing with Band 2 and whatever band FLOW plans to add to add to the mix (which I'm highly certain is Band 5).

I also find the Digicel's representation of the current market externalities as highly disingenuous, Digicel's network is built on Microwave ODUs which do not give them the reliability and scalability of Fibre. FLOW's fibre backbone supports not just them but government and traffic from private & public sector. Digicel has had many a chance to invest in islandwide fibre capacity but, they chose otherwise. I don't know why Digicel feels Liberty Global is threatened by Deep Blue... If only Digicel knew what was coming from Liberty Global & FLOW, they'd be silent.

Onto the question of FLOW & capacity. They would still be able to provide the fast speeds they do now, in fact, they'd have gone to 4x4 MIMO & 256QAM... Liberty Latin America at CANTO affirmed their intention to be the market leader in LTE and they intend to supersede the expectations of their customers. Liberty & FLOW keep up with the level of investment on the network required. Averages on edge of cell for FLOW LTE is at 35 Mbit/s on a unloaded site or more realistically 20 Mbit/s when I'm in an area like Downtown Montego Bay. That is rare however as FLOW's Band 4 LTE provides excellent coverage, I get averages of 60 Mbit/s down and 40 Up.

Very interesting, I see where Digicel is saying they are going full 100% with their LTE expansion. They plan to cover the entire country soon, they indicated that their frequency band is best ideal for LTE, as it has extensive geographical reach, which equates to less cell towers. But as you stated, the bandwidth of the 700Mhz frequency is not adequate to equate to high speed data in densely populated areas. I just need Flow to sort out the bugs on their system, as it pertains to credit being held when device is in LTE Network Mode. And I also hope they will add more fill in for Kingston and ST Andrew, band 4 is awesome. But it doesn't hold on long enough when one is deep within buildings. Kingston needs some of that band 2 or band 5 LTE. Thanks much for your informative reply.

[876]

I was doing some research and saw where in July 2009 Claro entered into an agreement to share towers with LIME... what am wondering tho is what became of those agreements when they merged with Digicel as in the agreement they were suppose to basically provide each other with equal towers or something of that note. I wonder if Digicel assumed the agreements Claro had and is sharing with FLOW now.