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macrumorsuser10

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 18, 2010
359
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Which company has the better (faster, more reliable, more coverage) LTE service in the Bay Area (San Francisco, Cupertino, San Jose) for the iPad 3?
 
This is in San Jose.
 

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I have a work issued mifi and I have been able to hit speeds of 30 and above in the south bay and in SF. verizon also has lte coverage in stockton, sacramento (att currently does not).
 
Which company?

I also had the same question, but then realized this was an iPad screenshot - the company (Verizon) is in the very upper-left-hand corner.

Yup it is Verizon LTE. I actually tried both in my area and the speeds are about the same. The reason I went with Verizon was because I already have an ATT iPhone 4S. Once they come out with an ATT LTE iPhone, I'll have the best of both worlds and won't have to worry about coverage any more.
 
Yup it is Verizon LTE. I actually tried both in my area and the speeds are about the same. The reason I went with Verizon was because I already have an ATT iPhone 4S. Once they come out with an ATT LTE iPhone, I'll have the best of both worlds and won't have to worry about coverage any more.

That's a very good idea.
 
AT&T LTE fairs pretty well for me in the Bay Area, I can't complain. Those tests shown are while I was making a drive from San Mateo to Alameda. If you're in the bay, I think its really a toss-up on your specific location. It works for me in the East Bay and South SF(only places I've tested it) and see no reason to switch to Verizon.
 

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With the exception of a few precious minutes, my iPad 3 could not get LTE on Verizon anywhere between Hayward and Mountain View. Some places I would expect to see at least 3G coverage I could not connect at all. I would be very cautious about signing up with Verizon.
 
It's been over a month since iPad 3rd gen was launched. Any further comments or observations from fellow (South) Bay Area folks on Verizon vs. AT&T for LTE service?
 
Just ran some tests. I'm in the south bay on Verizon:

Palo Alto server:
ping - 49ms
download - 28.53 Mbps
upload - 15.05 Mbps

San Jose server:
ping - 98 ms
download - 18.18 Mbps
upload - 17.09 Mbps

San Jose (smugmug) server:
ping - 36 ms
download - 29.24 Mbps
uplaod - 12.20 Mbps

Those numbers are pretty typical of my experience over the past month traveling between San Mateo to San Jose / Milpitas. Looks like AT&T coverage is pretty decent too, if not faster.
 
Bringing back a topic that asked before. Any more observations in the last month on AT&T and Verizon LTE coverage and performance?

I'm trying to decide between a Verizon or AT&T new iPad for use in the SF Bay Area. Since I use an AT&T iPhone 4s for work, I'm leaning towards Verizon to ensure I have access to relatively quick data connection (iPhone 4s on HSPA+, of course).
 
I can speak for AT&T. I was recently in the bay area and my Galaxy note was on HSPA most of the time while in San Jose, SF, Cupertino and Petaluma areas.

By Comparison. in San Diego, it is on LTE virtually all the time.

My vote is for Verizon.
 
Both companies have really fast speeds, but Verizon has the better coverage for the rest of the country, so I vote for big red.
 
I'm in the Santa Cruz area. Terrible speeds on AT&T, because its not LTE in this county. Switched to Verizon. Awesome LTE speeds (25-30mbps down) throughout this county, San Jose/south bay area, San Fran, Monterey. Verizon has it on iPad data.
 
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