Rogers LTE network, First Impression Hands-On Review.

I ventured out in to Vancouver saturday afternoon to give Rogers LTE network a true test. Rogers sent me the LTE enabled HTC Raider, so I finally had the equipment to put the LTE to good use.

Traveling out from Surrey, which is about 30 minutes outside of Vancouver. Surrey is listed under the “Coming Soon” area in the Rogers LTE coverage map. While I was traveling, I kept a close eye on the status bar waiting for it to click over to LTE. Finally it did around burnaby, and was very unstable until actually entering downtown Vancouver.

First thing that I noticed right off the bat was the networks unstable manner. I had arrived in Vancouver, and my signal was jumping from 1 to 4 bars every couple of steps while inside Pacific Shopping Centre, right in Central Vancouver. I got some very positive results, although none of which were consistent.

Every time I tested the speed of the HTC Raider on LTE using the SpeedTest.net app, I made my Galaxy S II do a side by side comparison. There’s no doubt the speed is nearly 3X faster than my Galaxy S II on Rogers HSPA+ network.

My main issue was network consistency, there was none. Walking outside, I would bounce from 2-4 bars of reception, immediately dropping to 1-2 when entering any building. On 3 occasions during my test, my LTE connection cut and I was left without any signal what so ever. This means I would have dropped a call three times during my 3 hours stroll around Vancouver.

Galaxy S II on the other hand would drop from HSPA+ to Edge, while maintaining a consistent connection to the network. Entering the underground sky train area, LTE was struggling, dropping and reconnecting constantly, but Gs2 HSPA+ maintained a connection, although it was weak.

Cutting down to the basics. LTE is a crazy fast service, I was getting faster speeds than my WiFi at home in some cases, but only could harness the true power when outside. Indoors it’s comparable to the existing HSPA+ network, though less stable.

Is LTE worth switching for? I would say not yet, but it’s amazing to hold in your hands for sure. I remain hopeful though, as Rogers expands the coverage, these little hiccups should go away… I hope.

Keep in mind, this is all based on my 3 hours of experience walking around Vancouver from Waterfront to Grandville street and underground sky train, jumping in to various stores. Others may experience this differently and offer a different personal opinion than my own. To those people I say, “Lets hear it”. Post your LTE experience, good or bad in the comments below.

LTE HTC Raider review coming soon.

Want to get additional information, or chat with Tom Gray? You can find him on his Google+ page.

( Link to Tom Gray’s Google+ Page. )