I have found lte to be disappointing in Chicago. Both on AT&T (galaxy s 3) and Verizon iPad 3 and iPhone 5. Elsewhere probably awesome. Just Chicago
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Lte Is underwelming in Chicago
- Thread starter SilentLoner
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I was getting 20+ Mbps speeds by the lemont st and 75th st area and around 7 Mbps around plainfield and route 83 on Sprint. But Sprint is only about half way done setting up LTE in Chicago, so its bound to be spotty. Where I live, I dont have LTE, but have noticed 3G is a little better (BIG emphasis on the little). I can, for the most part, stream music while driving, so I hope they're working on towers in my area so I can get some LTE my way. But, I was under the impression that AT&T and Verizon had amazing LTE speeds in Chicago, I guess not?
AT&T iPhone 5 on LTE is pretty damn fast around the providence ri area. Faster than most wifi connections
Chicago has always had capacity issues, like any major city. You'll get much better speeds way out in the 'burbs.
AT&T has half (5x5mhz) the spectrum as Verizon (10x10mhz) in Chicago, so you'll usually get better results from Verizon, especially on offpeak hours. AT&T's LTE is slightly faster and has less latency than HSPA+ in Chicago.
AT&T is supposed to launch another band of 5x5mhz on AWS waves, but to use both bands at the same time requires an LTE-Advanced device (which don't yet exist). The FCC is also giving the go ahead for AT&T to acquire a nationwide 20mhz band, but the iPhone 5 won't be able to use it.
AT&T has half (5x5mhz) the spectrum as Verizon (10x10mhz) in Chicago, so you'll usually get better results from Verizon, especially on offpeak hours. AT&T's LTE is slightly faster and has less latency than HSPA+ in Chicago.
AT&T is supposed to launch another band of 5x5mhz on AWS waves, but to use both bands at the same time requires an LTE-Advanced device (which don't yet exist). The FCC is also giving the go ahead for AT&T to acquire a nationwide 20mhz band, but the iPhone 5 won't be able to use it.
Lakeview here too...
FWIW
I've actually been testing this out myself:
I'm getting between 2-19 Mbps down on AT&T iPhone 5
Around 5-22 Mbps down on Verizon iPad 3 (AKA the New iPad)
That's traveling between Lakeview/Andersonville, Skokie, Lincolnwood, Park Ridge, Des Plaines from home to work last 3 days.
In general, Verizon LTE is smoking AT&T LTE in my testing... probably that limited LTE spectrum AT&T has that I've been hearing about on the interwebs.
FWIW
I've actually been testing this out myself:
I'm getting between 2-19 Mbps down on AT&T iPhone 5
Around 5-22 Mbps down on Verizon iPad 3 (AKA the New iPad)
That's traveling between Lakeview/Andersonville, Skokie, Lincolnwood, Park Ridge, Des Plaines from home to work last 3 days.
In general, Verizon LTE is smoking AT&T LTE in my testing... probably that limited LTE spectrum AT&T has that I've been hearing about on the interwebs.
Yeah I use Verizon for my own use. I always have signal and never dropped calls on vz. I know the speed is because its a City but its still disappointing. But vz smokes AT&T. Does verizon have more spectrum?
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It always seems such patchwork and us paying for The networks laziness.
I'm in Chicago and have been with Verizon since last October. At that time I made the switch from AT&T due to unreliability in the loop on a regular basis and swore I'd never switch back. I've never had issues with Verizon. All my friends and family are on AT&T though.
I've noticed that phone calls sound a LOT better when on a call from one AT&T phone to another AT&T phone vs Verizon phone to AT&T phone. In general I also prefer the fuller sound of AT&T / GSM calls...when they go through... I have the iPhone 5 w/ VZW currently and LTE has been rock solid everywhere for me so far (loop, north burbs, joliet, des plaines).
So my question is, is AT&T LTE in Chicago likely to be more reliable than its 3G / HSPA+? I want to switch back but hated not being able to use my phone in busy areas. Are you guys in the loop / north side experiencing the brutally slow data speeds like before LTE?
I've noticed that phone calls sound a LOT better when on a call from one AT&T phone to another AT&T phone vs Verizon phone to AT&T phone. In general I also prefer the fuller sound of AT&T / GSM calls...when they go through... I have the iPhone 5 w/ VZW currently and LTE has been rock solid everywhere for me so far (loop, north burbs, joliet, des plaines).
So my question is, is AT&T LTE in Chicago likely to be more reliable than its 3G / HSPA+? I want to switch back but hated not being able to use my phone in busy areas. Are you guys in the loop / north side experiencing the brutally slow data speeds like before LTE?
I'm out in Aurora/Naperville. No I do not have a iPhone 5 nor do I know the speeds. Just felt like telling my location. Sorry.
Verizon LTE in Richmond is great. Usually get 20-30 down, I've seen low 40s. More than fast enough.
Yeah I left AT&T cos of dropped calls in the loop also. I'm guessing its not changed for calls as LTE is only for data.
I'm in Indianapolis and so far, the LTE has been impressive to say the least, it pulls on average 25-35 Mbps
yeah,
I didn't want to bore everyone with the detailed results of my testing over 3 days so I just gave the ranges. when you look at the side-by-side tests, however, you see that Verizon LTE is routinely 3-5x faster than AT&T LTE in the same spot.
Reporting the range was a little deceiving/misleading...I apologize. Verizon only had 1-2 results at the low point of the range I gave whereas MOST of AT&T's speedtest results were at the lower end of the range listed for AT&T...hence the "smoking" comment I made in my original post
This was done over 3 days between Lakeview and the north burbs stopping to and from work along the way 4-6 times on each trip to test data speeds.