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AT&T vs. Verizon with 4G iPhone

K

ks-man

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 25, 2007
742
15
I currently have an iPhone 4 with AT&T and am familiar with the differences (both plus and minus) between them and Verizon with respect to the current generation of phones and the technology.

Whether it is the iPhone 5, 6 or 13s that adapts 4G technology, will the comparisons between the two providers be more apples to apples (no pun intended).

I realize that currently 4G can mean a lot of things (LTE, HSPA+, WIMAX) but when Apple officially calls the phone 4G I'm assuming they will refer to LTE.

So for the sake of comparisons within speculative threads, assuming that AT&T buys T-Mobile and Apple releases a 4G LTE phone, will there be any technical differences between AT&T and Verizon? Or at that point will we be able to due a pure price for plan vs. network comparison to make a decision on which phone we want (and thus which epitome of evil, I mean company, to sell our soul to)?
 
I'm still a believer that you should go with carrier that gives you the best coverage and service in your location. I am with Verizon customer for their 4G LTE mifi device that I use with my iPad 2, and occcasionally... I'll use it with my iPhone 4. I do love the speed of 4G LTE, but it is still spotty so it switches to Verizon 3G at times. The 3G service isn't bad, but at times it is really slow. The good thing is that I get more data coverage with Verizon over my AT&T 3G. However, my AT&T 3G is generally faster than Verizon's 3G. One thing I should note... when it switches from 4G LTE to 3G... or the other way around... there is a long lag time where you can't use data till the switch completes.

The reason we didn't go with Verizon for phone is we moved to our new house, the phone coverage was very poor in our area. The dropped calls were bad, but what made it worse... is our batteries would die because it is constantly searching for a phone signal. Therefore, I recommend going with the carrier that will give you the best coverage and phone service for your location. If you've been happy with AT&T, you might want to consider retaining them. AT&T's 4G probably won't be as fast as LTE, but it will be fast enough... and if you have unlimited data... at least you will be grandfathered. The thing that will be interesting is what the battery efficiency would be between Verizon's 4G LTE and AT&T's 4G iPhone.
 
Verizon and AT&T will be operating their LTE networks on different frequencies.
Verizon has a head start on deployment, but if the T-Mobile deal goes through for AT&T, they will gain a lot of backhaul network capacity.
This will speed up their LTE deployment plus improve their HSPA+ service as well.
T-Mobile has a great HSPA+ network with 42Mbps HSPA+ service in a few major cities already.
 
rjohnstone said:
Verizon and AT&T will be operating their LTE networks on different frequencies.
Verizon has a head start on deployment, but if the T-Mobile deal goes through for AT&T, they will gain a lot of backhaul network capacity.
This will speed up their LTE deployment plus improve their HSPA+ service as well.
T-Mobile has a great HSPA+ network with 42Mbps HSPA+ service in a few major cities already.
Click to expand...

I watched 20 videos of speed test comparing T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon and T-Mobile and Sprint never...NEVER got above 5-10Mbps while Verizon was hitting 10-20Mbps. No idea where you are getting this 42Mbps number but Verizon's 4G LTE kills every other service in speed.

And before you start this "Major City" argument. For 3 providers to have the 4G equivalent service in one area is a major city.
 
tjb1 said:
I watched 20 videos of speed test comparing T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon and T-Mobile and Sprint never...NEVER got above 5-10Mbps while Verizon was hitting 10-20Mbps. No idea where you are getting this 42Mbps number but Verizon's 4G LTE kills every other service in speed.

And before you start this "Major City" argument. For 3 providers to have the 4G equivalent service in one area is a major city.
Click to expand...

T-Mobile was/is in the process of developing their existing HSPA+ Network which I believe is 21.1 Mbps into it's next generation Network, which is 42(.2?).
 
Kyotoma said:
T-Mobile was/is in the process of developing their existing HSPA+ Network which I believe is 21.1 Mbps into it's next generation Network, which is 42(.2?).
Click to expand...

Where are these numbers from? T-Mobile wasnt even getting past 10Mbps??? There is a difference between real world and laboratory and I only care about the real world stats.
 
Will the Verizon issue of not being able to use voice and data simultaneously disappear once the 4G iPhone goes live? Speaking from a technological capability POV.
 
tjb1 said:
I watched 20 videos of speed test comparing T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon and T-Mobile and Sprint never...NEVER got above 5-10Mbps while Verizon was hitting 10-20Mbps. No idea where you are getting this 42Mbps number but Verizon's 4G LTE kills every other service in speed.

And before you start this "Major City" argument. For 3 providers to have the 4G equivalent service in one area is a major city.
Click to expand...
You're confusing protocol with actual throughput.

T-Mobile provides HSPA+ 21Mbps and (42Mbps in some cities) service.
That does not mean you will get full 21 or 42 Mbps download speeds.

Hell Verizon's LTE deployment is supposed to reach 50+ Mbps speeds, but we know it is significantly less.
 
rjohnstone said:
You're confusing protocol with actual throughput.

T-Mobile provides HSPA+ 21Mbps and (42Mbps in some cities) service.
That does not mean you will get full 21 or 42 Mbps download speeds.

Hell Verizon's LTE deployment is supposed to reach 50+ Mbps speeds, but we know it is significantly less.
Click to expand...


Yeah well I seen it not getting above 10. I dont care if it is supposed to get 42. We dont use our phones on top of the tower. In real world tests Verizon kills the competition.
 
tjb1 said:
Yeah well I seen it not getting above 10. I dont care if it is supposed to get 42. We dont use our phones on top of the tower. In real world tests Verizon kills the competition.
Click to expand...
I've got good money your phone doesn't support anything beyond HSPA+ 14.4Mbps, so you could be in an 80+ Mbps area and it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference.
10Mbps throughput is pretty decent for any HSPA+ phone.

As for Verizon "killing the competition", they need devices people want first.
They have 3 LTE capable phones and they all suck.
 
Micro SIM cards are the defacto standard for Verizons LTE protocol. While technically it's LTE now, it'll gain speed as time goes on and Verizon optimizes it.
 
Ive had att and verizon for two years now. I just dropped my att iphone plan for good and am going with verizon for phone service and att for ipad (as long as i can keep unlimited) with lte verizon is the better choice for phones. As both carriers get greedier with their data and text plans having grandfathered the old plans becomes more important.

----------
ks-man said:
Will the Verizon issue of not being able to use voice and data simultaneously disappear once the 4G iPhone goes live? Speaking from a technological capability POV.
Click to expand...

Yes. With lte you get voice and data simultaneously
 
ks-man said:
Whether it is the iPhone 5, 6 or 13s that adapts 4G technology, will the comparisons between the two providers be more apples to apples (no pun intended).
Click to expand...
Yes. They'll both be LTE though getting into an at&t market with LTE for comparison may be tricky in the near future.

ks-man said:
Will the Verizon issue of not being able to use voice and data simultaneously disappear once the 4G iPhone goes live? Speaking from a technological capability POV.
Click to expand...
Your question is oddly phrased. A 4G iPhone won't magically lift the limitations of CDMA. CDMA devices are still limited. LTE is certainly capable of simultaneous voice and data though.

erayser said:
I'm still a believer that you should go with carrier that gives you the best coverage and service in your location.
Click to expand...
Always good advice.
 
Wait so assuming in October we get our hands on a "4G" iPhone on both AT&T and Verizon. What's the fastest network speed/standard that AT&T currently offers? There's no AT&T LTE network in place yet afaik and AT&T seems to be the only one lagging behind in progressing "4G".

Will AT&T users just get HSPA+ and how fast will that be? I'd love to switch over after being a 4-5 year AT&T switcher for the very first iPhone but with unlimited data I want to stay.
 
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