Sorry - AT&T.
I'm disappointed with the speeds, but I don't know that it's worth the hassle to exchange for a Verizon iPad.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Horrific AT&T LTE speeds in Los Angeles
- Thread starter marekkurlmann
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Sorry - AT&T.
I'm disappointed with the speeds, but I don't know that it's worth the hassle to exchange for a Verizon iPad.
Thank you! I'm not an expert on this stuff, but I like to share what I've learned about it.
They're all reporting from the same unofficial source, no one actually confirming directly with AT&T, on the record. So that news cycle was basically one big circle jerk. Welcome to reporting in the internet/blogging age.
The FACT is that no official word has come from At&T on the matter (and there's obviously a reason for that.) The other FACT is that At&T's contract -- that you agreed to when you signed up for the service -- allows them to throttle whenever they choose to. One must only pay attention to AT&T's recent actions and official statements to see the writing on the wall here; it is patently obvious that the few remaining unlimited, untethered plans are on shaky ground. Not to mention, do you really think they'll ever bring hotspot capability to that plan, for free? Fat chance.
All of this is just a matter of time... as the number of people who lose their grandfather status dwindles, no longer feeling it fair to have to pay every month when all other subscribers have the luxury of only subscribing for the months they need it... Eventually AT&T will do the math and throttle those that REALLY are taking advantage of these "unlimited" plans, and using more than 4 or 5 Gb per month.
How much are you using monthly on average, anyway? Are you actually using the unlimited plan to is fullest?
If you are so confident about the longevity of your unlimited plan, I encourage you to stream from Netflix all night, for a few nights, over 4G/LTE and tell us what happens by week #2. The hilarious thing is that so few AT&t customers still on unlimited with At&T would be willing to try this, because deep down inside they know what will happen, and they're afraid to reveal the truth.
I was invested in the comparison here-- I *HAD* such a plan. I bought an iPad 3 on AT&T and a second one on Verizon, and compared them with speedtests, head to head, at various spots around this city, over the last week.
End result, long sory short: Verizon's LTE was more prevalent, and certainly faster (sometimes 4x so) than AT&T at 49 out of 50 spots. Given what I've now come to expect from LTE, it practically felt like AT&T was *already* throttling (relatively speaking.) The difference wad obvious and stark. The AT&T iPad is being returned.
So I sold my AT&T plan while it still had any perceived value. For a nice amount, that will handily cover any overages I might incur over the next 48 months... lol
Anyway-
I highly advise you to try and do the same. Don't go down with the ship. You're spending far more money overall (committed to month after month) and getting far worse service, and respect, than you deserve.
You have no idea what plan I even have, so what gives you the right to "advise" me on anything? Here's a hint - there is no Verizon service in Alaska, and I don't have an unlimited plan with ATT. That means I have no vested interested in whether someone keeps their plan or not - yet you seem to have taken far too much interest in what you perceived to be my situation.
I got about 15-25 Mbps around the Costco/home depot shopping center the other day in yorba Linda. On Verizon LTE of course. As I've said many times here, unless you're not a serial upgrader of iPads like the majority here, get the iPad that gets the best speeds right now. By the time att rolls out their AWS freqs in LA, we'll all be posting from our 5th gen iPads.
I did some more testing yesterday, and was getting 6-9 Mbps just south of DTLA, and 10-13Mbps in Long Beach near the Wardlow and Willow Blue Line stations.
Maybe speeds are improving?
I think I'm going to go to apple to exchange it for a verizon one. I've only seen LTE once on my iPad since I've had it and that was once in west Hollywood, I get about 4-5 download and 1 upload where I live (ventura county) and always on "4G" (Hpsa+). If its 14 day return, that would be this Friday is last day..
Is it easy to walk in and exchange to get the other? Never had to deal with apple...
Is it easy to walk in and exchange to get the other? Never had to deal with apple...
That's great to hear. I live close to that and the lte will come in handy while I get my car washed or have lunch somewhere in the area etc. I'm most interested to find out how it'll perform at my office in La Habra and around there like Brea. But I'll exchange it for Verizon. Seems like its just much more reliable based on feedback I've seen. The thing is I got mine at a target and their replenishment isn't as fast as the apple store obviously or best buy for that matter. Maybe I'll just return it and go without one for a while until I can find the exact one I want.
Thanks for the input!
Last edited:
Apple store in rancho cucamonga at Victoria gardens had pretty much all the iPad models in stock yesterday.
Thanks for the tip. I'm looking at inventory nightly for an in-store pickup and just downloaded the find one app. Finger's crossed that I can find one soon. Going to return my ATT one in a day or two
I'm in the South Bay and prior to the new iPad release, I was getting pretty good LTE speeds with my Momentum hotspot. They were around 10-15Mbps up/down. These were all in the South Bay, mostly in the Beach cities (Redondo, Hermosa, Manhattan) but also in Hawthorne, Torrance and Carson. The speed slowed down when the new iPad was released for some reason and was getting 5-10Mbps. up/down. And I forgot to add that I also had a MiFi Verizon hotspot as well as a Moment hotspot, both were 4G LTE capable. Verizon was consistently giving me the highest/fastest speed, while AT&T was more erratic and was somehow effected when the new iPad was released. I don't know if it's still like that because I exchanged it a couple days after the release. I exchanged my AT&T iPad to a Verizon iPad because of it's capability of taking an AT&T SIM card and also to get more space, 16GB to 64GB.
I do have an AT&T iPhone 4S, and I haven't really done any speed tests on it but it seems to be "ok" and unaffected. However, it is nice to know that I am connected to HSPA+ even though is falsely called 4G.
I do have an AT&T iPhone 4S, and I haven't really done any speed tests on it but it seems to be "ok" and unaffected. However, it is nice to know that I am connected to HSPA+ even though is falsely called 4G.
UPDATE: I swapped my ATT for Verizon last week, and where I live I actually got a decrease in speed, quite a bit since there's no LTE in my town still for vzn. I was getting about 5Mbps on ATT ("4G" HPSA+) and now on Verizon 3G I get like 1 Mbps (on a good day). But second I head 20 miles towards LA, LTE is fast.
Looking at coverage map I'm between two main cities with LTE (los angeles and Santa Barbara), hopefully they connect soon....verzon will before AT&T would anywho. But i work in LA as well so LTE has been great around there, and in reality I'm only at home when I'm in my town in which I have wifi...plus I have AT&T for iPhone with unlimited which I hear I can pop in to get their speeds if no LTE and speed is needed...
So overall I'm satisfied with my Verizon iPad since its more capable and have not noticed any issue of normal use speed compared to AT&T.
Looking at coverage map I'm between two main cities with LTE (los angeles and Santa Barbara), hopefully they connect soon....verzon will before AT&T would anywho. But i work in LA as well so LTE has been great around there, and in reality I'm only at home when I'm in my town in which I have wifi...plus I have AT&T for iPhone with unlimited which I hear I can pop in to get their speeds if no LTE and speed is needed...
So overall I'm satisfied with my Verizon iPad since its more capable and have not noticed any issue of normal use speed compared to AT&T.
I bought an AT&T model but I think I'm going to return it and get a Verizon one instead. I am not getting LTE by my house in OC even though the coverage map shows LTE is available. There's also no LTE available in the IE where I work. I was trying to be loyal to AT&T but the network just isn't there yet.
For AT&T, I am getting the HSPA+ which is the 4g and that's about 3 to 6 Mbps up and 3G is about to 1 to 3 Mbps.
I don't have Verizon so I cant comment on that.