Apple May Be Throttling Verizon iPhone 7 LTE Performance

[spinedoc77]

Not a good enough test, if you could test your AT&T sim in the Verizon iPhone (Verizon iPhones should have unlocked SIMs) that would be a better test. The idea, place a call on your AT&T iPhone 7 in a spotty area and see if it drops, then place the call with a Verizon iPhone 7 that has your AT&T SIM in it in the same spot you placed the AT&T iPhone call. See if the reception with the Verizon iPhone 7 on AT&T is better and/or if the call quality is better over the Qualcomm modem.

I've actually done that and have the same results, both my 7+ and my wife's non plus 7. I agonized over leaving AT&T and tried every way to get them to work in my home at an acceptable level. I even compared dB levels of each scenario, the reception was similar so I don't believe that was much of a factor. Once again completely unscientific, only the anecdotal experience of a single person.

 

[solodogg]

If I could get to 15Mbps I would take that. I used to see it in Orlando...on my iPhone 4S. Haven't seen it once since getting LTE. Orlando, FL. Thanks AT&T.

Anyone else in Orlando? I seriously think (based on travel) that Orlando's AT&T LTE may be the worst of semi-major to major cities in the US.

Had AT&T when I first moved down, consistently saw 50-60mb speeds most places except the tourist areas. Florida Mall and a mile around there has horrible coverage (no service inside the mall, no usable service outside the mall). Millenia/I Drive area has poor coverage, and towers that are very overloaded.

On the other hand...Lake Eola would give me 60mb consistently, 30-50mb along 434 between Maitland and Altamonte, hell I could even hit 50+ inside of the Amway Center.

With that said, AT&T is the only carrier that shows no service inside my new home just west of Apopka, while Sprint/VZW/T-Mo all show at least 3 bars of service. I switched to after moving in, and haven't had many complaints since then. I drop calls every now and again along Clarcona-Ocoee at Hiawassee, and have slow coverage in Lockhart...but the service works pretty good otherwise. iPhone 7 A1660 (VZW Model)

 

[lostngone]

I am confused, that graph only shows 1.0 to 5.0 megabits? Is that just an average because that seems really slow.

 

[Cartossin]

Umm what's this <5mbps nonsense? I get at LEAST 20mbps usually on LTE with my iPhone SE.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

BS!

Cellular Insights is a shell company created in 2016 by Qualcomm to FUD Intel broadband chips.

That is all they have been doing, and people are eating it!

Who is paying these "studies" after all? Who pays Cellular Insights? Why did they only appear in 2016, when Apple is using Intel modems?

citation needed

Not that I don't think it's plausible but that sort of accusation requires more than "some guy on a forum posted..." And if true puts an entirely different light on this story.

 

[merkinmuffley]

Forget this...and gaze upon the many colors of the watchbands and be happy.

This company is rapidly turning into one I don't want to do business with.

 

[Zirel]

citation needed

Not that I don't think it's plausible but that sort of accusation requires more than "some guy on a forum posted..." And if true puts an entirely different light on this story.

Citation also needed for the "study" in the first post.

Who paid the study?

Who are Cellular Insights costumers?

What does Cellular Insights aim to achieve? Don't big OEMs like Apple and Carriers have their own testing?

Which other studies comprove or disprove the study?

 

[nviz22]

I'm talking about just the U.S. The Verizon S7 Edge I know can be used on AT&T, T-mobile, Verizon, and any other GSM carrier. But I'm more so talking about the Nexus/Pixel phones, Motorola, LG, HTC, and likely more - all had phones that worked on all US carriers.


Wasn't the 6S able to be used on any carrier? You could get the AT&T model and use it on Verizon if you wanted.

That's fine and all, but a global standard is what we need at the end of the day. Sprint and Verizon need to get rid of CDMA tech.

 

[BootsWalking]

Citation also needed for the "study" in the first post.

Who paid the study?

Who are Cellular Insights costumers?

What does Cellular Insights aim to achieve? Don't big OEMs like Apple and Carriers have their own testing?

Which other studies comprove or disprove the study?

http://cellularinsights.com/cellularinsights/

 

[KdParker]

Seems crazy they would do this...why not reward Verizon subscribers for choosing a superior network?

That's how I see this. Just open it and let the data fly.

Doesn't this also mean the resale value is higher for Verizon iPhone 7 next year?

 

[Zirel]

http://cellularinsights.com/cellularinsights/

Doesn't answer my questions besides "we are awesome, trust us".

 

[iChrist]

BS!

Cellular Insights is a shell company continently created in 2016 by Qualcomm to FUD Intel broadband chips.

That is all they have been doing, and people are eating it!

Who is paying these "studies" after all? Who pays Cellular Insights? Where they get their money. Why did they only appear in 2016, when Apple is using Intel modems?

Also, Qualcomm is the #1 supplier for top of the range SOCs and modems for Android phones.

A lot of questions you ask. No answers, though.

Asking questions like this implies foul play but you have no evidence. Like a bunch of breitbart tripe. All red herrings, why does qualcomm want to trash apple?

 

[nviz22]

There is a reason for this.
Modems are integrated into those CPUs and Samsung doesn't own the necessary licences to include CDMA support into their own Exynos SoCs, so they are going with Qualcomm Snapdragon in CDMA markets.

Both Samsung and CDMA carriers are to blame for this. Verizon/Sprint are using unfavorable tech. Samsung should've gotten the licenses to expand its SoC business since Qualcomm is 2nd or 3rd rate.

 

[BootsWalking]

Doesn't answer my questions besides "we are awesome, trust us".

It actually answers three of your questions. Whether or not you choose to believe them is another matter.

 

[geoff5093]

That's fine and all, but a global standard is what we need at the end of the day. Sprint and Verizon need to get rid of CDMA tech.

They are, Verizon is much further along.

 

[calzon65]

Seems kind of sneaky/creepy if true.

 

[coolfactor]

Dammit Apple, everyone loved it when you made one identical phone for all carriers. Android does this with many of their phones, why are you going in reverse?

First, you know that Android is not a company, right? It's an operating system made by Google, and installed by companies.

Second, I agree with you that Apple is making some weird decisions lately. What's not analyzed here is what is more responsible? Samsung selling phones that completely consume all available bandwidth, or Apple selling phones that are a bit more conservative, ensuring that their phones do not do that. I'm not defending Apple here... more bandwidth means transactions complete more quickly, so it's a balancing act.

 

[mrgq]

Most likely qualcom cant meet all shipments so they split with intel.

The reason is because Qualcomm owns the CDMA spectrum thus using their modems requires paying licensing fees. Apple is likely trying to get rid of this by using Intel for GSM modems as they do not have dual bands thus the do not have to pays the CDMA fees.

 

[geoff5093]

First, you know that Android is not a company, right? It's an operating system made by Google, and installed by companies.

Second, I agree with you that Apple is making some weird decisions lately. What's not analyzed here is what is more responsible? Samsung selling phones that completely consume all available bandwidth, or Apple selling phones that are a bit more conservative, ensuring that their phones do not do that. I'm not defending Apple here... more bandwidth means transactions complete more quickly, so it's a balancing act.

Yes I know that, I mean many Android phones have one model for all carriers these days.

 

[jessed563]

Apple may be throttling the LTE performance of the Verizon iPhone 7 to keep it on par with the AT&T iPhone 7, according to research conducted by Twin Prime and Cellular Insights

Let me fix this article,

"Idiots figure out a way to get attention, tricks a bunch of really stupid people"

from my verizon ip7:

[doublepost=1479501908][/doublepost]

So you just defend Apple no matter what? Apple is infallible and no one could possibly have a legitimate complaint?

no, it's that no matter what, there's a new "problem" every week. People are sick of them being blamed for everything is all.

People are sick of the kids who say 'HURR DURR APPLE'S USING 6TH GEN I7, SHOULD BE 7TH

without thinking of the TDP. These aren't smart people. These are stupid people who have no business talking tech. There's a lot of (stupid) backlash going on now, and therefore you have people who are bored with these idiots.

 

[Preclaro_tipo]

Let me fix this article,

"Idiots figure out a way to get attention, tricks a bunch of really stupid people"

from my verizon ip7:

[doublepost=1479501908][/doublepost]

no, it's that no matter what, there's a new "problem" every week. People are sick of them being blamed for everything is all.

People are sick of the kids who say 'HURR DURR APPLE'S USING 6TH GEN I7, SHOULD BE 7TH

without thinking of the TDP. These aren't smart people. These are stupid people who have no business talking tech. There's a lot of (stupid) backlash going on now, and therefore you have people who are bored with these idiots.

how do you get Speedtest to test Cellular, mine will only test Wifi, it says no connection when I turn off wifi.

 

[jessed563]

how do you get Speedtest to test Cellular, mine will only test Wifi, it says no connection when I turn off wifi.

that's really strange man, mine just works when turn off wifi. Check that your cellular data is turned on in settings?

 

[Preclaro_tipo]

that's really strange man, mine just works when turn off wifi. Check that your cellular data is turned on in settings?

You're right!! Thanks for your help!

 

[jessed563]

You're right!! Thanks for your help!

Glad that worked for you.

 

[dlewis23]

Doing a couple of quick queries and I'm pretty sure this is a no. The numbers they show in the chart are rather odd. They seem very slow. Here is some avg. download speed data for October 1st till now using my iOS app for iPhone 7.

Verizon: 27.543538 Mbps

AT&T: 21.538130 Mbps

From the large pool of tests across the entire country, Verizon is almost 30% faster. So I would say this isn't really happening. Besides using the max theoretical speed of a LTE modem is a dumb idea because you will never even see anything close to even 50% of that.