[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Jade Eyed Wolf:
With regard to LTE, you raise a valid point from a future-proofing perspective. However, as it stands, all that extra speed is completely pointless when there are severe limitations in place.

Lemme explain:

As a grandfathered unlimited user, I admit I have probably been pampered and spoiled by having the peace of mind knowing I will never have to suffer the abomination known as "overage charges." I can use my mobile connection when I want, how I want, and as much as I want, and never have to worry about a thing; it's very liberating actually! Now, of course, I don't consider myself to be a blatant "data hog" or anything like that. I do use WiFi as often as it's available to me, and on average, I probably go through between 4 and 6 gigs a month of actual mobile data.

Here's the thing though... If I add up my combined usage per month (WiFi + 3G), that figure jumps significantly to something closer to 40 - 60 gigs a month! That's a lot of data to say the least, and honestly, it's not as hard to reach those kinds of figures as you might think! Watch enough HD Netflix, stream enough Google Music, spend enough time on YouTube, and you'll be up in that territory in no time.

With LTE being as fast as it is, and in many cases, with LTE being even faster than some wired technologies like DSL and cable, the average user is likely to want to use it do do some of the more data intensive things I mentioned above, while on the go.

That's all fine and dandy except that our carriers have limitations in place that render these kinds of activities either pointless or prohibitively expensive.

For example, I know that I could get an LTE device from AT&T right now if I wanted to, and I could continue to enjoy "unlimited" service, in the sense that I still would have peace of mind with regard to overage charges. However, AT&T has been very vocal about its throttling policy with regard to heavy users (whose number is growing rapidly btw). So, if I'm just more likely to run into an imposed speed restriction that much sooner, the extra speed that I could be getting with LTE is therefore rendered useless and pointless to me, and I'm just back to searching for the nearest WiFi again.

It's kinda like if two people were both driving 50 miles to get somewhere. One person is in a supercar, and the other person is in a Civic. The posted speed limit for the Civic is 45mph for the whole 50 miles, and the supercar can drive as fast as they want... for the first 5 miles, at which point they're forced to abide by a 45mph limit along with the Civic. It's stupid.

For those of you who are on tiered data plans, I suppose my analogy could be altered to look something like this:

Both the supercar and the Civic could theoretically drive the whole 50 miles, but seeing as how they're both going to have to pay an additional $10 per mile after 5, they both get off the road and take the train instead for the remainder of the journey, because it's much cheaper.

That 40 - 60 gig figure I mentioned above? Have fun paying the overage charges for that on LTE if you're on a tiered plan! You're better off getting onto WiFi at that point.

Actually, last month, my 3G (HSPA+) was supposedly throttled. I even called customer service to confirm it. The funny thing is though, I barely noticed it! I mean I was still averaging about 3mbit down for the most part! So, if that's what throttling on my current plan feels like, I can happily live with that. I mean, if anything, it's a much less jarring experience than feeling the whiplash of flying along at 40+mbit and then suddenly being dropped to less than 3, or whatever...

The way I see it, there are two solutions to the whole access limitations malarkey. One is to adopt a truly unlimited model, where anyone on LTE can use as much data as they want as fast as the carrier can deliver it to them. This would be a dream come true, but I doubt we'll ever see it.

The other solution, which I feel is a more realistic and fair compromise for everyone, is to continue with a tiered approach, but significantly raise the threshold. AT&T figures that the average user on 3G goes through around about 2 or 3 gigs a month at most, which is why their plans are now offering about 3 gigs of data before charging overages. However, LTE is about 10 times faster than 3G on average, so why not adjust those thresholds accordingly? 30 gigs a month of LTE access doesn't seem too unreasonable does it? On top of that, why not throw in a premium plan that offers up to 100 gigs of access for some power users who find it worth their money to pay for that level of access? Now we're talking, and now I'm interested...

Another thing to point out, with regard to future-proofing is this:

LTE is still very new, and as it stands, it's also still very proprietary to specific regions and even specific carriers within those regions (like how AT&T's and VZW's LTE are incompatible with each other, because, among other factors, they use different frequency blocks, even inside of the same 700mhz spectrum).

This is very reminiscent of how things used to be back in the old days when 3G used to be the "new thing." It used to be that overseas 3G devices wouldn't work in North America and North American 3G devices wouldn't work overseas either, because they all operated on different frequencies specific to their own regions and carriers. However, with time, as the technology matured, we began to see more tri-, quad-, and even the occasional pentaband devices.

It makes sense from a manufacturing standpoint really. It's much cheaper to make one type of device which is compatible with the most dominant standards established, on a worldwide scale, than it is to make multiple custom versions of a device, tailored to the proprietary specifications of multiple regions and carriers. By taking this kind of "one size fits all" approach, manufacturers can widen their profit margins by being able to sell their devices to a much larger crowd. It's also in the carriers' best interests to establish and conform to world standards as well so they can lessen the cost of and improve their synergistic relationship with the manufacturers.

In fact, this is one of the biggest reasons that carriers around the world, and especially here in North America, are quickly adopting LTE; even Sprint has abandoned its WiMax plans in favour of LTE! LTE has emerged as the worldwide dominant mobile standard for the future, and sooner or later, older standards like CDMA and legacy GSM will be phased into obsolescence and eventually retired altogether.

My point is, we're moving in the right direction, but we're still in the early stages yet. So your intentions are certainly in the right place by wanting to future-proof, but considering where we are right now, we still have a long way to go yet, both politically and technologically. On top of that, by the time we're at a point where manufactures are producing factory unlocked multi-band LTE devices, compatible across most networks worldwide, and until we're at a point where carrier service packages are more reasonable than they are today, the device you have been holding onto since today will look like and antiquated tool used by the cavemen of our era, and you'll just want to upgrade anyway.

In the mean time, stick with the mature technology we already have, and enjoy and appreciate it for what it's worth; unlocked, unrestricted, un-bloated, and free of the shackles and jurisdictions of a carrier subsidized device.

Thanks for reading! Hope you've enjoyed it! ;)