How my Verizon iPhone fared at SXSW

[LincolnsiPod]

I've been raving about my Verizon iPhone's solid network service so far, but I knew the real test would come when I attended the SXSW convention. Here's my experience since some of you expressed interest in how it would work out then.

My friend had his AT&T iPhone with him, and it got to the point when I was ready to kill him because some of my texts to him kept getting lost, and yet he blamed Verizon... until he realized other people's texts to him were getting lost too. Dweeb.

As for my Verizon iPhone's performance: nearly perfect. There were times when it dropped to 3 bars when I went inside the convention center or a hotel for a session, other times when it lost 3G for a few minutes, but it never lost the data connection. Calls were crystal clear and perfect.

The worst was when the trade show started and I stood right in the middle of the chaos, then it started to buckle badly. Tweets would take 30 seconds to go through, emails would take minutes to download, and so on. But the voice was still perfect. I took two calls and made one myself at the tradeshow without an issue.

Still, I wish the data hadn't taken a hit like that, but at least I could still send out tweets and emails with the network bogged down, albeit barely. That was the only time I had an issue though. As soon as I walked outside the convention center everything was right as rain.

As an addendum, I'm staying in Dallas now, and in a fit of delicious irony, I could not connect to my hotel's AT&T wifi to save my own life, so I'm sending this post up via a tethered Verizon connection instead.

 

[saberahul]

I'm very happy with my VZW iPhone. Data speeds aren't that great (see signature) but they are good enough for me. I ran the test (in my sig) with 2 bars so obviously in 5 bars it will be faster.

 

[kleinias]

...The worst was when the trade show started and I stood right in the middle of the chaos, then it started to buckle badly. Tweets would take 30 seconds to go through, emails would take minutes to download, and so on. But the voice was still perfect. I took two calls and made one myself at the tradeshow without an issue.

Still, I wish the data hadn't taken a hit like that, but at least I could still send out tweets and emails with the network bogged down, albeit barely. That was the only time I had an issue though. As soon as I walked outside the convention center everything was right as rain.

Reading your account of how (on Verizon) voice worked fine for you even as the data connection (in a crowded setting) slowed, reminded me of this statement from AnandTech's Verizon iPhone review:

"The bigger difference between the two is reliability. Because voice and SMS goes over 1xRTT on Verizon, usually when you can't transact data, calls still work. With the AT&T iPhone 4, when saturation on UMTS happens, you won't be able to call or transact data unless you manually toggle 2G. The result is some built-in robustness for voice on Verizon purely because of that voice/data segregation. In addition, Verizon often puts 1x voice on 800 MHz spectrum and EVDO on 1900 MHz PCS where posisble, so voice coverage tends to work even in places data doesn't necessarily."​

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4163/verizon-iphone-4-review/5

 

[LincolnsiPod]

Reading your account of how (on Verizon) voice worked fine for you even as the data connection (in a crowded setting) slowed, reminded me of this statement from AnandTech's Verizon iPhone review:

"The bigger difference between the two is reliability. Because voice and SMS goes over 1xRTT on Verizon, usually when you can't transact data, calls still work. With the AT&T iPhone 4, when saturation on UMTS happens, you won't be able to call or transact data unless you manually toggle 2G. The result is some built-in robustness for voice on Verizon purely because of that voice/data segregation. In addition, Verizon often puts 1x voice on 800 MHz spectrum and EVDO on 1900 MHz PCS where posisble, so voice coverage tends to work even in places data doesn't necessarily."​

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4163/verizon-iphone-4-review/5

Yep, that pretty much affirms my experience. I really wish Verizon would have spanked the crap out of AT&T data-wise, and it did for the most part, except at the tradeshow. Still, that's about as worse a scenario to use a phone in, so I say it held up well.

 

[LincolnsiPod]

I'm very happy with my VZW iPhone. Data speeds aren't that great (see signature) but they are good enough for me. I ran the test (in my sig) with 2 bars so obviously in 5 bars it will be faster.

I just tested the data speed now at my hotel with my tethered connection: 2.90MB That's the fastest I've ever seen it too. I'm using USB tethering too, no idea it could make such a difference as long as the 3G signal is strong.