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New York City Speeds With 4s (Verizon/ATT/Sprint)

peglegjack

peglegjack

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 30, 2011
436
252
Brooklyn, NY
I'm aware that this is a somewhat concentrated thread, but I'm trying to figure out if AT&T and Verizon are really that much better than Sprint, specifically in the Manhattan/Brooklyn area. I couldn't imagine it being much worse judging from my 0.10 Mbps avg in the East Village today. I just want to be able to use my phone like it was meant to be used, so would someone out there be able to give me some insight?

Thanks
 
I don't have a 4S but on my 4 I get an average range of 2-5mbps dwn and most of the time above 1mbps up. I'm frequently either in Queens(where I live), Bklyn and Manhattan. Bklyn does have certain pockets that are terrible with cell service in general for all carriers. Otherwise service is pretty good.
 
I dont understand how people are getting such fast speeds. I get speeds of 1-2mbps on ATT. Usually its even less than 1 during peak times of the day... this is with an iPhone 4 and 4S in manhattan, queens and long island
 
Here in north jersey (right across the Hudson from NYC) I will have times in the day where I get as low as 1-2 Mbps, then other hours of the day I'll get speeds as high as 8-9 d/l
 
NYY FaN said:
I dont understand how people are getting such fast speeds. I get speeds of 1-2mbps on ATT. Usually its even less than 1 during peak times of the day... this is with an iPhone 4 and 4S in manhattan, queens and long island
Click to expand...

Those are the speeds I use to get, but in the past several months it's jump significantly. People I know with the 4S have better speeds. Around 6-8mpbs. I don't understand why such low speeds for you. :confused:
 
So would it be a safe bet that AT&T drops off to about 1 Mbps at it's worst? I haven't gotten above 0.24 Mbps in Manhattan with Sprint, though granted this is during the day.
 
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Obscurelight said:
I'm on verizon and I get sometimes as low as .76mb to max of 2.3mb downtown manhattan
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.76 would be fine with me. That's enough to use maps and things like that, right now you just can't with Sprint, though I've pulled off 1.72 Mbps around midnight last night in Brooklyn. It's definitely a congestion issue.
 
Here are some recent tests I ran from speedtest app from iPhone 4 .... I in Queens very close to Williamsburg side of Bklyn & very close to Midtown Manhattan.
 

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I'm in Manhattan on AT&T & just got 3.96 Mbps download; 1.23 Mbps upload; Ping 97 ms. on 3G.
 
I don't really have much in the way of "numbers" to post, but I moved to NYC 6 months ago and AT&T has been TERRIBLE for both data and voice all around Manhattan. Regardless of what the speed tests say, I always had problems actually USING data on the phone. Even loading the weather would be a painful task at certain times.

I've switched to Verizon as of the release of the 4S and so far, things seem much better. I no longer drop calls with a full signal (unlike AT&T) and data seems much snappier/more consistent and reliable. Time will be the true test, but overall, I'm much happier.

I just looked at my speedtest.net app and it looks like my average Verizon download speeds are between 1-1.5 Mbps with upload speeds around .8-1 Mbps.
 
something's wrong

I don't even get those speeds on my TWC wifi with my 4S, WTH. 2.47mbps was my best speed by far in NYC on Verizon 3G. Today's best speed was 1.27mbps
 
I used to get about 1mbps max in Manhattan on AT$T with my 4. With the 4S, I still hit the same dead zones, but my average speeds seem to be roughly double.

I have seen no where near 5-10mbs. I haven't even hit 3 once.

----------
archelon said:
South Brooklyn, NY, on wifi.
Click to expand...

Fixed it for you.
 
peglegjack said:
Wait, either it's a steady 1 Mbps during the day or you're lucky to get connected. Anyone else?
Click to expand...

Seriously, DO NOT get AT&T in NYC. Yes, some people will inevitably come on here and state how great their speeds are based on a speed test. But, the fact is, AT&T is terrible in Manhattan and speed tests don't reflect real world usage scenarios IMO.

I was a happy AT&T customer for 5 years in Colorado and then moved to Manhattan 6 months ago and was been anxiously awaiting the release of the next iPhone every day during that 6 month period so that I could jump ship and switch to Verizon. I had 5 bars with AT&T in my apartment & pretty much throughout my neighborhood, but calls would frequently drop or not even go through when attempting to dial. Data was unusably slow a lot of the time. AT&T replaced my SIM card which yielded no improvement. Apple replaced my iPhone, again, no improvement. AT&T's network is simply way too congested here. Despite having a full signal, the towers are overloaded and voice and data bandwidth is reduced for everyone.

I haven't had Verizon long enough to offer conclusive results, but I strongly believe Verizon has the best network in NYC based on numerous posts I've read and comments I've heard from others around town over the past few months. So far it's definitely an improvement over AT&T. I haven't dropped a call yet in 4 days and people's voices don't break up like they did with AT&T (despite having a full signal). I almost always had to call people back with my home phone whenever I got a call on my cell in order for the call quality to be good (I work from home, so a land line is a requirement for my job).

DO NOT go with AT&T in NYC.
 
jkozlow3 said:
Seriously, DO NOT get AT&T in NYC. Yes, some people will inevitably come on here and state how great their speeds are based on a speed test. But, the fact is, AT&T is terrible in Manhattan and speed tests don't reflect real world usage scenarios IMO.

I was a happy AT&T customer for 5 years in Colorado and then moved to Manhattan 6 months ago and was been anxiously awaiting the release of the next iPhone every day during that 6 month period so that I could jump ship and switch to Verizon. I had 5 bars with AT&T in my apartment & pretty much throughout my neighborhood, but calls would frequently drop or not even go through when attempting to dial. Data was unusably slow a lot of the time. AT&T replaced my SIM card which yielded no improvement. Apple replaced my iPhone, again, no improvement. AT&T's network is simply way too congested here. Despite having a full signal, the towers are overloaded and voice and data bandwidth is reduced for everyone.

I haven't had Verizon long enough to offer conclusive results, but I strongly believe Verizon has the best network in NYC based on numerous posts I've read and comments I've heard from others around town over the past few months. So far it's definitely an improvement over AT&T. I haven't dropped a call yet in 4 days and people's voices don't break up like they did with AT&T (despite having a full signal). I almost always had to call people back with my home phone whenever I got a call on my cell in order for the call quality to be good (I work from home, so a land line is a requirement for my job).

DO NOT go with AT&T in NYC.
Click to expand...

Wow, that sounds terrible! How are the data speeds on Verizon, good enough to function?
 
peglegjack said:
Wow, that sounds terrible! How are the data speeds on Verizon, good enough to function?
Click to expand...

So far, yes. However, I have not left my neighborhood (UES) since getting my 4S this weekend. I have been averaging 1-1.5 Mbps down (plenty fast for me) and the data is CONSISTENT unlike AT&T where sometimes data would work and sometimes not so much (even in my neighborhood).

The true test will be when I head to midtown I guess. Could be a couple of days before that happens though. I do have a friend with Verizon (Blackberry - not iPhone) who travels to the city a lot for meetings (midtown) and says he rarely has any issues at all with Verizon in the city.
 
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