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Are all Verizon speeds this bad.
- Thread starter snarestud940
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Verizon's subscriber numbers are the result of a bunch of different factors:
1. Inertia from the days when voice usage outweighed data usage. Back then coverage, not data speed, was the #1 reason for picking a carrier, and Verizon has plenty of coverage. Some people still see that nationwide coverage map with red slathered everywhere to the where where it's meaningless on such a small scale map, and pick on that basis alone, even if they know they'll never visit any of those other places.
2. Favorable data plans for families, with generous upgrade options (that have since been discontinued). So, lots of big families have multiple phones for the spouse, kids, etc and are locked into multi-year contracts with multiple lines that all have different contract-end dates, making it really hard and really expensive to switch. And if you're a kid not paying for your cell service, you're going to take whatever your parents are paying for, even if you are going to use way more data and will notice the slow speeds the most.
3. Acquisitions of smaller cell carriers over time. Everything from lots of little mom and pop cell companies (Mohave wireless, Plateau Wireless, lots of little companies you've never heard of) to larger fish (Alltel, Centennial).
It's really only within the past couple of years, with the iPhone making it to Verizon, that people really started to pay attention to the limitations of CDMA (low speeds, requiring multiple radios for voice + data simultaneously). Verizon countered with aggressive LTE buildouts, but as you've seen, if there's a phone that lacks LTE, or if you're unlucky enough to live in an area without LTE yet, you're stuck on 2001-era data speeds.
And even with LTE, Verizon users still need a phone with multiple radios to do simultaneous voice and data. VoLTE isn't turned on yet, so every time you're on a call, your phone must switch to 3G for voice.
Well that's kinda funny, because T-Mobile is notable for being late to the party with 3G, and late to the party with LTE. Granted they as VoiceStream they were pretty much first-to-market in the US with cellular data, providing a 1G Circuit Switched Data network that mimicked ISDN, but they've taken their sweet time upgrading the network to 2G, then 3G, and LTE.
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Not my speeds, I live in Canada using Rogers
If only I can claim the Telstra speed, that's a diff story.
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Verizon LTE speeds have slowed down considerably since I had the third gen iPad. I'm starting to notice jammed data connections at large sporting events.
May switch back to att with the next phone. I don't want to pay a premium if the service is starting to lag
May switch back to att with the next phone. I don't want to pay a premium if the service is starting to lag
Speeds for all the carriers vary based on day and location. In Washington DC I've see my Verizon speed drop down to 6-7mbps up to 16-18mbps. But, key thing for me is in DC my Verizon iPhone works fine at hockey games and baseball games. My ATT iPhone did not work at all, it was 100% dead.
So while in overall ATT may have faster speeds, it's useless to me if my ATT iPhone does not work. I've had Verizon since the i5 and besides from unable to use data and voice at the same time I love the coverage and speed of their LTE network. As a footnote, I was with ATT for well over 7-8 years.
So while in overall ATT may have faster speeds, it's useless to me if my ATT iPhone does not work. I've had Verizon since the i5 and besides from unable to use data and voice at the same time I love the coverage and speed of their LTE network. As a footnote, I was with ATT for well over 7-8 years.
You are comparing 4G to 3G? Really? Verizon's LTE speeds trounce your TMobile "4G" (read HSPA) speeds
Depends on area.
Have both Verizon LTE and ATT LTE. I routinely get 50ish down and 15 up with ATT vs 18 down, 5up with Verizon in the exact same locations.
Verizon's 3G speeds suck! I'm lucky if I ever see over 3 Mbps on my 4S. Their LTE is where it's at though.
Perfect example of why you can't assume. Number of customers indicates nothing but number of customers.
Coverage is still a priority for many. Data speed means nothing in dead spots or even areas with coverage but poor coverage.
Here's a small little update
This is in midtown manhattan. I was taking a walk from 37th street and 6th ave down to 14th street
I only took speed tests when I saw 3-4 bars of service, which was pretty rare. Most of the time there was 1-2 bars I didnt even bother with the speed tests. With verizon we NEVER see 5 bars of service.
This is in midtown manhattan. I was taking a walk from 37th street and 6th ave down to 14th street
I only took speed tests when I saw 3-4 bars of service, which was pretty rare. Most of the time there was 1-2 bars I didnt even bother with the speed tests. With verizon we NEVER see 5 bars of service.
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BS. No way you're averaging that. Sprint only has 5x5 spectrum for LTE, so the max throughput is 37 mbps. No way is Sprint's shoddy network (even after network vision) averaging near the max of both their 3G and LTE networks, especially in a high traffic market, like Phily
