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AT&T Tops 3G Wireless Performance Study

aristobrat said:
Weird. Verizon finally gets some popular smartphones (Droid + Eris brought it a lot of new customers) and then runs some ads touting how big its 3G coverage is (bringing it even more customers), and now its 3G network is benchmarking slower? <b>Whodathought that adding load to a network would slow it down?!</b>
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Certainly not Verizon and it's fanbois... :rolleyes:
 
I think this is great news for ATT, for me nearly 2 years coming
Now as the other providers focus on the next generation of delivering us data, will ATT keep up or catch up.
 
abijnk said:
My personal experience with the iPhone on AT&T and the Droid on Verizon in the Los Angeles area is not reflected in this chart. The Droid on the Verizon network was very noticeably faster that the iPhone on AT&T 3G.

Guess it just depends on where you are...
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Howdy, Neighbor! The majority of MB/HB issues can be resolved with a cell site on top of the roundhouse (MB pier). Barring that, you would need a whole lot of pico-cells mounted on the light poles. Doesn't help much that the city councils keeps (just about) any cell sites from going up west of PCH.
 
macduke said:
Attached are my 3g download speeds from my podunk college town of Springfield, MO. They are actually pretty impressive. Ever since I came back from Christmas in KC, the speeds have been faster; between 3.5 to 5.5 mbps.
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Springfield isn't that podunk. Now, if they bring those kinds of 3G speeds to Rolla (A real podunk college down and my podunk college town until 2008) I'll be impressed :p
 
I agree

FearlessFreep said:
I can attest that in the Northern Virginia/DC area, AT&T has done a lot to improve their service in the almost two years I've had my iPhone. They even have 3G service all the way out to my area, which is sparsely populated.

say what you will about AT&T, but there are real-world examples that their network is improving.
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I have to say I agree with this statement. I travel weekly to NOVA and DC and I have noticed major improvements in calls and data. Where I used to drop a call once in a while the other day I was on a call for over an hour and it was crystal clear! :eek:
 
AT&T has improved...

I'm glad to see some clear data on this question. While I have joined in the AT&T complaining over the last few years from time to time, I have to admit that my experience over the past six months has been very good... the only remaining complaint is the premium pricing vis-a-vis the competition...

...rectify that and I will believe that AT&T is solidly on the way to being a long-term iPhone partner.
 
Jaro65 said:
I agree. The calls get dropped sometimes, but generally the service is not bad.
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I think the service has improved over the last few months. I have only had one dropped call this year so far.

3G speeds all over the place lately. I just tested at 300Kbps. It's been that way at my house for the past few weeks. Last night I was getting almost 2Mbps and that didn't last long. A few months ago, I was getting near 3Mbps every day no matter when I tested it.
 
Anecdote!

Anecdote alert:

Just switched from a BlackBerry Bold on AT&T to a Palm Pre Plus on Verizon. I live in Northern Virginia (Washington, DC metro area).

Over the last 6mo-year, I noticed AT&T's service quality degrading very quickly in my area. More dropped calls, more trouble getting data to work, etc. My wife and at least a couple of my friends had similar/identical complaints on a variety of AT&T phones, including the iPhone.

When data worked right, it was speedy...generally...though it tended to have a lag. I'd click to load something, it would pause for a few seconds, then load it pretty quick.

Now, on Verizon, virtually no dropped calls and much more reliable data in more places. Data downloads are noticeably slower than they were on AT&T, but there is no starting lag (click to load something, and boom it starts loading)...so in real world usage (surfing the web) it seems faster, even though the actual data throughput is less.

As always, your mileage may vary...but in my area, I certainly didn't see AT&T service improving over the last year... quite the opposite. I had been a happy AT&T customer and defended AT&T when people criticized them...but they got so bad so fast that I had to eat the early termination fee and jump ship.
 
I'd like to see a similar comparison between the four major Canadian carriers:
Rogers
Fido
Telus
Bell


*** Off-Topic ***
Is it just me, or has there been a *ton* of Macrumor contributors recently promoted to Demi-God status??
 
FearlessFreep said:
I can attest that in the Northern Virginia/DC area, AT&T has done a lot to improve their service in the almost two years I've had my iPhone. They even have 3G service all the way out to my area, which is sparsely populated.

say what you will about AT&T, but there are real-world examples that their network is improving.
Click to expand...

And regarding Virginia... continuing to improve... AT&T on Local News
 
ineedamac said:
I have to say I agree with this statement. I travel weekly to NOVA and DC and I have noticed major improvements in calls and data. Where I used to drop a call once in a while the other day I was on a call for over an hour and it was crystal clear! :eek:
Click to expand...
Posted before I saw this; my experience was the polar opposite in NOVA so this is a bit baffling to me (it was fine in DC-proper, though). I've seen a nose-dive in quality and reliability and just jumped-ship to Verizon last month because of it after almost 5 years on AT&T.
 
caffeinejoe said:
I'd like to see a similar comparison between the four major Canadian carriers:
Rogers
Fido
Telus
Bell


*** Off-Topic ***
Is it just me, or has there been a *ton* of Macrumor contributors recently promoted to Demi-God status??
Click to expand...

subscriptions must have expired so they are renewed
 
no one is debating that ATT isn't fast......what's being debated is the LACK OF COVERAGE.

whoop-dee-doo....ATT has fast 3G service, IF you can even get coverage.

i would rather have a tad slower Verizon 3g speed knowing their coverage is everywhere.
 
jav6454 said:
Really? Last I checked AT&T is adding same or more smartphones to their network and we actually see it improve. That is odd isn't it?
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Don't understand your reply, but that's probably just me...

but I was commenting that Verizon and fans touting their superior service and "map for that" are now seeing signs of degradation thanks to more and more popular data hogging smart phones infiltrating their network and actually being used... :eek:
 
I've noticed major improvements just south of Charlotte, NC as well. There was zero 3G coverage in Fort Mill SC as of about 2 months ago and now it's covered well and I get full 5 bars of 3G.

Very pleased so far...
 
jaw04005 said:
Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut … according to all the tech pundits that live in New York and San Francisco — Verizon is the best?!?!

:rolleyes:

Like any service, it only matters what the service is like in your specific location.
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*sigh*

someone from reddit said:
I don't think anyone is ever bitching that AT&T's network is slow, they are up in arms because it's incredibly unreliable (resulting in tons of dropped calls) and has poor penetration.
Neither of these issues were tested in their test, so it doesn't seem too shocking.
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For me:

2009 - Averaged 2-3 dropped calls a day and download speed was usually 1 mbps.

2010 - Average 2-3 dropped calls a week and download speed is usually 2 mbps.

These are not minor changes. I'm glad to see AT&T was telling the truth about the work they were planning to do.
 
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