I live in San Diego and I've been getting anywhere from 20 to 40 mb/s on AT&T. I don't know why you guys are complaining. It's been very reliable and constant.
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Horrific AT&T LTE speeds in Los Angeles
- Thread starter marekkurlmann
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Well to be fair, San Diego county does have twice the amount of 700Mhz LTE spectrum LTE, so speeds should be better there. Having said that, those in LA County on grandfathered unlimited plans should stick with AT&T despite getting slower speeds than Verizon because A. one should never get rid of a plan that others wish they can get, and B. AT&T has 20Mhz of supplemental AWS (1700/2100) spectrum that they plan to use for LTE (hence why the AT&T iPad has an additional LTE band embedded in it).
Im guessing they are on the outskirts of LTE coverage. That being said,all ATT customers should download the Mark THe Spot app, if you ever have a dropped call,slow data , no data or any network problem, Report it (the tool is designed for this) its easy and painless. Within two months of getting my 4s and submitting a few reports my coverage and speeds have doubled. I have 4 bars always, including in the shower. Yes i checked
I did this today. I was in downtown LA but I chose the server to be in Monterey Park. It really depends what route the data goes for a test I guess, I tried a Los Angeles server and got an embarrassing 6.7mbps for LTE but switching to MP and I got 27mbps... go figure. Don't know how it translates in real usage but I feel like it's more than fast enough for me in my usage. P.S. AT&T does need to get their latency down though. Verizon's LTE averages under 100ms a lot of the times in LA. Not a big deal but just saying'
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Anyone else have experience with not getting LTE signal in Walnut, CA?
The coverage map looks like it is covering Walnut, but I am not getting it around MT SAC.
I am really disappointed because I like the 3GB for 30 dollars but I am thinking about keeping my verizon iPad instead,unless something is just wrong with my signal.
The coverage map looks like it is covering Walnut, but I am not getting it around MT SAC.
I am really disappointed because I like the 3GB for 30 dollars but I am thinking about keeping my verizon iPad instead,unless something is just wrong with my signal.
I'm finding that outside of the western half of the county, lte coverage pretty much evaporates except for a lone tower here and there.
http://reboot.fcc.gov/spectrumdashboard/searchMap.seam
According to the FCC, AT&T has only 12Mhz of 700Mhz spectrum in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. Thus, AT&T is using 5x5 LTE in that area. However in San Diego County, AT&T has 24Mhz of 700Mhz spectrum, thus allowing them to use 10x10 LTE.
The plan in the near future, however, is to supplement "spectrum-starved" areas such as LA/OC with AWS (1700Mhz down/2100Mhz up) spectrum, which AT&T has plenty of (and, again, why the AT&T iPad has 2 LTE frequencies compared to the Verizon one.)
Thank you for the information. Still not very clear on it, but I'll try to figure it out. Do you know what it's like for Riveride and San Bernardino Counties? I'll be attending school out there and was wondering if AT&T is better than Verizon.
Riverside and San Bernardino both have 12Mhz of contiguous 700Mhz spectrum on AT&T, meaning AT&T will likely use 5x5 LTE in those areas. However, AT&T also 12Mhz of unpaired 700Mhz spectrum, which they plan on eventually using also for LTE, but I can't remember the technology they are going to implement to make it usable (they might just use it for the download side.) Verizon has 22Mhz of contiguous 700Mhz spectrum nationwide. When AT&T launches LTE in those counties, it will top out at 37Mbps, whereas Verizon LTE will top out at 73Mbps. Having said that, both carriers advertise average speeds of 5-12Mbps anyways.
I fall in this boat, but am now being seriously tempted by a buyer offering me $500 cash for my unlimited AT&T plan. (It's easy enough to transfer over to his name/billing address and CC, and also the username login and pass.)
I'm in L.A. and get a reasonable LTE signal (I've been testing it all week, at various places) but the speeds are wildly inconsistent. And even at its fastest, it doesn't seem as fast as some of the Verizon speeds I am hearing about. (I also only get 4G at home, not LTE... but I have WiFi here so it's not that big of a deal.)
(Oh and in case you're wondering, I'm pretty sure that fastest speedtest result from 3/20 @ 12:54 AM was done on my home WiFi.
)I dunno, I mean, for $500 smackers, I could easily get by on Verizon's $30 (or heck, even $50 plan if I was feeling piggy) and enjoy their faster speeds across the board. I could use Verizon's Hotspot feature instead of relying on the Tether.com HTML5 hack, or waiting for a jailbreak and MyWi (since AT&T hasn't yet decided to offer hotspot tethering... and if they did, my gut tells me it won't be offered on unlimited plans.)
Also, I could cancel during the months I didn't need cell service, and re-sign up when I did. I could see that happening maybe 2-3 times a year, which is money saved. With the AT&T unlimited plan I *must* stay continuously subscribed, whether I need it or not -- or I lose the plan.
Lastly, there is a part of me that doesn't trust AT&T as far as I can throw the iPad 3 (and that ain't far.) I wouldn't be at all surprised if, within the next 3-6 months, AT&T quietly reveals that iPad users on unlimited plans will now be throttled after 3GB of usage, too. Which would largely cripple the benefit and value of this unlimited plan.
I keep waffling though, and don't know what to do. Gosh how I wish I'd just ordered two iPads, one for each carrier, tested them head to head and returned the slower one after 13 days...
I guess I'll figure it out in the next day or two.
I fall in this boat, but am now being seriously tempted by a buyer offering me $500 cash for my unlimited AT&T plan. (It's easy enough to transfer over to his name/billing address and CC, and also the username login and pass.)
I'm in L.A. and get a reasonable LTE signal (I've been testing it all week, at various places) but the speeds are wildly inconsistent. And even at its fastest, it doesn't seem as fast as some of the Verizon speeds I am hearing about. (I also only get 4G at home, not LTE... but I have WiFi here so it's not that big of a deal.)
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(Oh and in case you're wondering, I'm pretty sure that fastest speedtest result from 3/20 @ 12:54 AM was done on my home WiFi.
I dunno, I mean, for $500 smackers, I could easily get by on Verizon's $30 (or heck, even $50 plan if I was feeling piggy) and enjoy their faster speeds across the board. I could use Verizon's Hotspot feature instead of relying on the Tether.com HTML5 hack, or waiting for a jailbreak and MyWi (since AT&T hasn't yet decided to offer hotspot tethering... and if they did, my gut tells me it won't be offered on unlimited plans.)
Also, I could cancel during the months I didn't need cell service, and re-sign up when I did. I could see that happening maybe 2-3 times a year, which is money saved. With the AT&T unlimited plan I *must* stay continuously subscribed, whether I need it or not -- or I lose the plan.
Lastly, there is a part of me that doesn't trust AT&T as far as I can throw the iPad 3 (and that ain't far.) I wouldn't be at all surprised if, within the next 3-6 months, AT&T quietly reveals that iPad users on unlimited plans will now be throttled after 3GB of usage, too. Which would largely cripple the benefit and value of this unlimited plan.
I keep waffling though, and don't know what to do. Gosh how I wish I'd just ordered two iPads, one for each carrier, tested them head to head and returned the slower one after 13 days...
I guess I'll figure it out in the next day or two.
I hear ya; that $500 offer is tempting! To be fair though, if AT&T did begin to throttle unlimited plans on the iPad, it would kick in at 5GB. Right now, AT&T is throttling smartphones on unlimited plans at 3GB for 3G/4G HSPA+ and 5GB for 4G LTE.
Right, that makes sense. Let's not forget though, this is the same company that bait-and-switched 3 weeks after the iPad first came out. We were told unlimited would be an option month to month, so I bought in. Then barely before my first month of ownership was up, they shifted gears and told us this plan was gone, and the only way we could keep it was to maintain continuous coverage. Shady.
This is also the same company that first announced throttling of smartphones on unlimited plans, at 2GB -- when any other customer would be able to sign up regularly and pay the same amount, and get 3GB. They called it the "top 5%" but miraculously shifted these statistics and granted the same "unlimited" users 3GB before throttling (still labeling them the "top 5%."
My point is, yes, 5gb would make sense, but I wouldn't put it past AT&T to be shady again and only grant 3GB. Or 4GB. They want folks (or, at least folks who really USE these plans) off unlimited. I simply don't trust them. And any throttling at all, even at 5GB, to me means it's not really unlimited. The value of the plan plummets.
If the speeds were blazing I might hold on. As it stands now, they are not and the numbers I see for Verizon, in the same area, are better. I am going to an Apple Store to compare head to head. If my impression stays the same, I will take the $500 and make the switch.
No doubt that AT&T really needs to work on regaining the consumer's trust after some questionable decisions as of late.
I'm complaining because in the parts of San Diego County I frequent, AT&T's coverage sucks. I don't experience that with Verizon, hence why I switched to a Verizon iPad this time around.
Yeah it is really bad here in LA. I was able to get a solid 2.5 - 3.3 while working around LA today. That is a joke for LTE.
I live in Riverside county and have co-workers I carpool with in San Bernardino/Redlands. As of now, there is NO ATT LTE in this area. The furthest west I've found ATT LTE is in the western Corona/Anaheim hills area, and in the north Montclair/Rancho Cucamonga. Around UCR/Cal state SB it's all just ATT 4G. My Verizon iPad has LTE in all these areas and I average about 15 down or so with <100 latency. Needless to say, the ATT iPad is on it's way back to Apple this very moment after dropping it off at fedex. ATT doesn't have this area slated for LTE rollout this year. I believe it's in the 2013 allocation. My reasoning is I might as well enjoy LTE speeds and then by the time iPad gen 4/5 come out, then I'll reassess the carriers again.
Well, no one can say I'm not being methodical.
Phase 1 of comparative experimentation is complete. The lesson today is that "not all that is called LTE, is alike."
I have just returned from the Apple Store at the Beverly Center in Los Angeles. There, I did a speed test -- in the food court -- with two new iPads.
At least in this current location, in this city, at the same time, side-by-side, we have these results:
AT&T LTE (with two bars) on the left; Verizon LTE (with three bars) on the right.
Point: Verizon
I've done more tests as I headed home, and Verizon LTE has been consistently MUCH faster than AT&T LTE.
I will continue testing over the next 48 hours in various places I go to most in this city. My hunch (based on what I have read) is that Verizon's LTE is faster, and its signal is potentially more prevalent, in SoCal. I do know that when Verizon doesn't have LTE signal, it's 3G service will be much slower than AT&T's "4G" service. However, if the LTE service is good enough, and WiFi remains as prevalent to me as it has been in the last 18 months, I'm not going to worry too much about it. The ease of Verizon's included hotspot feature is something I'll enjoy from time to time, too.
I'm doing this exhaustive comparison, simply because I still have unlimited data on my AT&T plan. I wanted to make sure I was making the right choice, before selling it to an interested buyer.
Phase 1 of comparative experimentation is complete. The lesson today is that "not all that is called LTE, is alike."
I have just returned from the Apple Store at the Beverly Center in Los Angeles. There, I did a speed test -- in the food court -- with two new iPads.
At least in this current location, in this city, at the same time, side-by-side, we have these results:
AT&T LTE (with two bars) on the left; Verizon LTE (with three bars) on the right.
Point: Verizon
I've done more tests as I headed home, and Verizon LTE has been consistently MUCH faster than AT&T LTE.
I will continue testing over the next 48 hours in various places I go to most in this city. My hunch (based on what I have read) is that Verizon's LTE is faster, and its signal is potentially more prevalent, in SoCal. I do know that when Verizon doesn't have LTE signal, it's 3G service will be much slower than AT&T's "4G" service. However, if the LTE service is good enough, and WiFi remains as prevalent to me as it has been in the last 18 months, I'm not going to worry too much about it. The ease of Verizon's included hotspot feature is something I'll enjoy from time to time, too.
I'm doing this exhaustive comparison, simply because I still have unlimited data on my AT&T plan. I wanted to make sure I was making the right choice, before selling it to an interested buyer.
Verizon has LTE in more places, and it is faster than AT&T's version. However, in the majority of the country where there is no LTE service from ANY provider, the ATT device will be faster. AT&T is reportedly planning to make the hotspot feature available on iPads used with its network, but there is no indication of when that might occur.
Yes, this is consistent with what I have heard/learned.
I suppose if I travelled a lot around the U.S. into smaller cities, where LTE isn't as prevalent, then keeping my unlimited AT&T LTE (with 4G/HSPA+) plan would make sense. As it is, I don't travel that much outside of L.A. When I do, it's to New York, Fort Lauderdale, Santa Barbara, San Diego... all of which are cities with proper Verizon LTE, according to their map. Even still, at most of those places, I typically have WiFi.
My bigger issue, as has been discussed, is a matter of trust. I have no confidence that AT&T will keep these unlimited plans alive and unthrottled past 2012. I also have no confidence that when/if they make the Hotspot feature available, that they will not grant it to those folks still on unlimited plans. Just like what they did for smartphone plans, my hunch is that they will only make it available on the capped plans. (And heck, they may even charge extra for it!)
Most importantly, at least for my usage pattern, is the fact that to keep my unlimited plan, I need to pay for it, every single month... in order to remain eligible. Realistically I only need a plan 6-9 months out of the year. And when I do, I might even be able to get by on the 1 GB plan, for $20. Certainly the 2 GB plan will be fine. And if not, with the money I make from the sale of this unlimited plan, I can easily splurge on many months of the 5 GB for $50 plan. There's just no reason for me to continue paying $30, month after month, for an unlimited plan I'm not really taking advantage of, that isn't nearly as fast as Verizon's, in the city I use it most.
Anyway, I'm thisclose... to finally being able to say "sayonara" to AT&T for my iPad plan.
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