PC Magazine July 2017

Verizon introduced LTE by 2011. AT&T followed that lead a year later, and then
T-Mobile and Sprint did the same. But speed increases weren’t steady. AT&T’s
network plummeted under a heavy load in 2013, and Verizon’s network suffered
the year after.
The gains we’ve seen over the past few years show no sign of stopping. There’s a
2X jump in maximum download speeds every two years or so—from 50Mbps to
60Mbps in 2014, to 120Mbps in 2016, and this year to 200Mbps.
LTE has more to give. A well-designed gigabit LTE network, such as Telstra’s in
Australia, can deliver 400Mbps to 450Mbps on a regular basis. In 2018 and
2019, we’re hoping to see those speeds from carriers here in the U.S.
By 2020 and 2021, we’ll have 5G phones. Demos I’ve seen at Qualcomm have
shown the potential for speeds of 4 gigabits and up to each device. That will
potentially enable real-time group VR and other science fiction–like
experiences. We’ll keep testing, just to make sure.
GIGABIT LTE ISN’T JUST THE FUTURE
AT&T is evolving. So are T-Mobile and Verizon. All three carriers have
introduced “gigabit LTE,” a mix of three new technologies that can really
accelerate your wireless speeds. No, gigabit LTE won’t give you actual gigabit
speeds, but our tests show it can double your download speeds from previous
network generations.