Lte Is underwelming in Chicago

[SilentLoner]

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

[saving107]

ok, it works fine for me in California.

[FelixDerKater]

Originally Posted by SilentLoner

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

What kind of speeds are you seeing?

[rshroff2]

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?

[iapplelove]

AT&T iPhone 5 on LTE is pretty damn fast around the providence ri area. Faster than most wifi connections

[SilentLoner]

Originally Posted by FelixDerKater

What kind of speeds are you seeing?

Ranging from 5mbps to 15

I'm in Lakeview

[sdfu93]

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.

[tophermd]

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.

[AutoUnion39]

Chicago has always had issues with every carrier. I know that AT&T only has half the spectrum running in the city and is trying to get the other half soon to match VZW in the area for LTE coverage and speeds.

[MultiMediaWill]

Anyone have speeds to report for the Naperville/Bolingbrook area?

[SilentLoner]

Originally Posted by tophermd

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?

----------

Originally Posted by sdfu93

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.

It always seems such patchwork and us paying for The networks laziness.

[lionqueen]

Lol, I read this as "life is underwhelming in Chicago"...

[elixxxer]

Yep. I'm in Lakeview or the Loop 90% of the time and it blows.

[jlp2979]

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?

[MyMacintosh]

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.

[jester0723]

Verizon LTE in Richmond is great. Usually get 20-30 down, I've seen low 40s. More than fast enough.

[SilentLoner]

Originally Posted by jlp2979

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?

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.

[AppleFan91]

I'm in Indianapolis and so far, the LTE has been impressive to say the least, it pulls on average 25-35 Mbps

[stevetim]

Stopped at midway yesterday. Pretty busy at Midway with iDevices EVERYWHERE.

Not too bad I guess.

[mpossoff]

Originally Posted by tophermd

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.

Not a 'smoking' difference with AT&T averaging 2-19 and VZW averaging 5-22

[jaybagley]

In Jefferson Park last night. I'm seeing between 3.5-27(My Max) in various locations across the city and Evanston.

[SGMD1]

Works great for me. I'm downtown.

[~Phi]

I'm in lakeview and have been getting less than 2 Mbps all morning. I'm not impressed with AT&T LTE speeds in Chicago so far. On launch day I was averaging around 9 - 10 Mbps, but haven't seen those speeds since.

[PsstGreek]

In Mount Prospect I'd get around 26 down, 10-12up,

[tophermd]

Originally Posted by mpossoff

Not a 'smoking' difference with AT&T averaging 2-19 and VZW averaging 5-22

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.