A little Data Network test done in In Los Angeles County

[Evolesque]

I was doing a bunch of things all over the county today and I took both ATT and Verizon iphones out with me and logged 51 data points each of ping, download and upload speeds. The Charts I present as attachments are to be read as traveling from West Los Angeles (Santa Monica) from the left, to West Covina on the right. I was in and out of 5-6 different cities today and while sitting around waiting in a car this afternoon going to santa monica for dinner, I also took some data on the free way from about mid city to Santa Monica. These readings are definitely not meant to be the definitive end all observation of data speeds in LA. They are merely what they are, my account and experience, which I do think gives a bit of insight into the two networks data speeds in LA.

Observations: What surprised me today was ATT's speeds. Even though they fluctuate quite a bit, on average they are a lot higher. Upload speeds are more in line but you do see the occasional higher upload speed with ATT as opposed to Verizon.

My Opinion for Los Angeles: Well, it all depends on Location when choosing a provider, but I want to focus on data users since I feel call quality is the same. If you use a lot of data and need faster speeds, the the ATT Iphone will be a better choice. It has a higher ping at around 1/3 of a second but the download rates are several times better than Verizon's CDMA iphone model in Los Angeles. Also it's starting to be apparent to me that if anyone in LA is considering picking up the next iphone, it's probably a better deal to go with ATT since it's likely that even though the next iphone whatever they call it will probably not have LTE, HSPA+ might be there for ATT users which will further increase the already higher data speed.

Hope this helps out certain people. : )

 

[flipster]

Fantastic chart for all the LA users. This would be very helpful. From what I see, it basically comes down to this.

Verizon will load web pages just as quickly if not a little faster due to lower pings.

AT&T will stream video better due to better download speeds

Both are about the same in upload speeds, AT&T being a little faster

Call quality has been known to be a little more consistent with Verizon.

Both are good networks! Location, location, location. Great chart!

 

[Evolesque]

Thank You. Yeah, My current job I found out gives a better discount for Verizon service than AT&T. I have been on the iphone(orignal-4) on ATT. That's why I'm contemplating switching to Verizon. Also the way I see it is Verizon already has an amazing LTE network in place here and with unlimited data locked in I could always go to the darkside haha! and pickup a 4g android device and get some real nice speeds over LTE. I made these charts because I was looking for something like these myself.

 

[erayser]

Nice charts. You have the colors backwards... LOL..
J/k... nice job.

 

[wordoflife]

I heard the main problem in Los Angeles with AT&T is dropped calls (though the phone may appear to have a solid connection).

Any insight on that?

 

[Evolesque]

hey wordoflife, Well from personal experience on ATT for the last 2 years in Los Angeles, I can't say I've had too many dropped calls. Yeah, I can off the top of my head recall a couple times of this happening but nothing that ever became a huge concern since it was kind of a rarity for me. Now I've mentioned service location cause that was not the case for me on ATT when I got the original iphone in 2007. Back then, I lived in San diego around the La jolla/ Del mar area and I had terrible service from ATT. I came from a Verizon phone back then to the original iphone and noticed a huge service difference in favor of Verizon. Don't know if thats changed since then. Also I recently talked to my friend that lives in Virginia and he also has told me Verizon is the way to go in the area he lives in. So I can see how people are worried about ATT dropping calls and such since it's seems to happen frequently in different locations plus it's all over different news sources. However, I travel all around LA and LA county all the time and personally do not run into issues with call drops myself.

 

[317342]

Los Angeles isn't bad at all on 3G but it depends what part you're talking about.

The only place I've had truly spotty coverage is at some of the Metrolink stations. Union Station is fairly well covered, though.

 

[kleinias]

I heard the main problem in Los Angeles with AT&T is dropped calls (though the phone may appear to have a solid connection).

Any insight on that?

I had an iPhone 4 (before that a 3G and then 3GS) on AT&T and the service I had in most of LA was pretty average. Most of the time it would work fine but I had a noticeable amount of dropped calls and calls that just wouldn't initiate or go through. My service was noticeably improved when I switched to Verizon. In my limited experience, Verizon's coverage and service was superior. However, I definitely noticed that (at least according to speed tests I ran) Verizon's data speeds were slower than AT&T's. I did get more 3G coverage on Verizon, it's just that the speeds were slower.

 

[Bobby Corwen]

There are random locations where you get horrible service in LA. Just randomly.

Verizon seems to have more patches covered.

I would rather have AT&T on the basis of the browsing while making calls alone and also for convenience when I travel on vacation to GSM countries.

But, I was visiting a friend in Venice (Cali not Italy) and I had 1 bar and multiple failed calls. I was visiting my uncle in Buena Park near OC and I couldn't keep 3G it kept reconnecting and my battery drained/died overnight because of that.

In comparison, I have never found a place in all of Phoenix, AZ valleywide metropolitan area where I didn't get super fast 3G ever. Like Ever.

A larger major city is challenging and takes decades to fully cover, sure, but when something shocking like that happens semi-rarely, I always wonder, does Verizon get reception here?

It doesn't happen very much but when and if it does it's quite devastating.

 

[Bobby Corwen]

Dbl

 

[erayser]

For the most of LA, I have okay AT&T 3G data in places we go. The place where we have bad 3G data is Hollywood Universal Studios, which is like 20 miles from Venice. Verizon's 3G isn't any better, but it's usable when we to Universal Studios. We don't travel to many cities in LA... but we take our boys to the amusement parks. We don't issues with either carrier at Disneyland or Knotts. They do have great 4G LTE coverage at those parks.

 

[Dunbar]

I think Verizon is doing a good job of blanketing LA with 4G. I live 40 miles inland and Verizon rolled out 4G here. I was playing with a Droid Charge at the Verizon store and got 13Mbps down on a speed test. It really was like surfing the internet from a fast wifi connection. I know 4G is not relevant to the iPhone 4 but if Verizon ever gets the Galaxy S2 I'm seriously considering giving Android a try.

AT&T's 3G speeds out my way are pathetic - 200-300kb/s compared to Verizons 3G speeds of 900kb/s.

 

[Evolesque]

Just checking in on this thread, Awesome to see some observations on AT&T service in comparison to Verizon. It makes this thread even more helpful. I'll chime in with a couple of mine. So even though I originally posted about data speeds, I'll say a couple things about voice too. Around westwood, brentwood, and santa monica, I've always had great voice calls with no drops, internet speeds are also some of the fastest I've seen on AT&T in the county. Two bad areas I can think of are inglewood and (sierra madre, the place right before arcadia off the 210). When I used to visit a friend that lived in inglewood, I used to drop calls quite frequently down there whether at his apartment, or driving down manchester. I've noticed too that my 3g frequently dropped to edge, terrible. Sierra madre was pretty bad for data (kept dropping to edge), by the downtown area where starbucks and lucky baldwins are.

As an aside, I saw someone talk about the Droid Charge, I actually had that phone for 6 days and returned it for an iphone haha! 4g lte speeds I gotta say, are phenomenal. I got 28 mbps down and 14 mbps up when I tried a speed test in westwood. I Couldn't stand the phone though, battery life was terrible, and the LTE signal would constantly dropped to 3g all the time indoors. The screen actually was not my taste either(I know a lot of people love it, but I do photography as a hobby and the colors for me where way too inaccurate.) Also the extreme brightness is a godsend outdoors, but it is blinding at night. That is even after downloading a screen widget that turn the brightness below default zero and then using the screen filter app on top of that at 50%. I don't think android is quite there yet for me to enjoy it enough to use one as a daily. That is even after I downloaded launcher pro and did all the basic customizations. didn't try rooting and installing humble cause I knew I might return it. If I end up sticking with Verizon, I am looking forward to seeing some of the 2nd gen LTE devices coming out that hopefully adress the battery issue.

 

[jav6454]

Verizon's network is so pitiful. It can't even break 1.5 Mb/s down...

 

[flipster]

Verizon's network is so pitiful. It can't even break 1.5 Mb/s down...

Home internet averages around 1.0 mbps. Please, don't sit here and complain because your getting 1.5 mbps average on VZW's network everywhere.

Yeah, on AT&T you can get 6 mbps down, but that's extremely rare. Most of the time it's no service, edge, or 1 mbps as well. At least w/ Verizon you get a consistent 1mbps down EVERYWHRE. At least that's my testing done in the Boston area. My brother has been on Edge all day here( AT&T iPhone), while I've had 5/5 bars all day on 3G on Verizon.

Latency is a big factor here as well. Web pages will surely load a lot faster with low latency (VZW) than high latency (AT&T).

Location is key though. For some, AT&T works better, other's VZW works better.