Study Finds AT&T and Verizon Have Slower LTE Speeds After Launching Unlimited Data Plans

[MacRumors]

In its semi-annual State of Mobile Networks report this week, OpenSignal claims that both AT&T and Verizon have experienced a decline in 4G LTE speeds since each carrier reintroduced an unlimited data plan in February. OpenSignal blames the slowdown on an increase in data demand now that caps have been removed.

From April through June, AT&T's average LTE download speed was 12.92 Mbps, while Verizon averaged 14.91 Mbps, according to crowdsourced data from thousands of users with the OpenSignal app for iOS or Android.

By comparison, OpenSignal's last report measured average LTE speeds for AT&T and Verizon at 13.86 Mbps and 16.89 Mbps respectively, based on crowdsourced data collected from 169,683 users with the OpenSignal app for iOS or Android installed between October 1 and December 31, 2016.

August 2017 Report

AT&T: 12.92 Mbps
Verizon: 14.91 Mbps
Sprint: 9.76 Mbps
T-Mobile: 17.45 Mbps
February 2017 Report

AT&T: 13.86 Mbps
Verizon: 16.89 Mbps
Sprint: 8.99 Mbps
T-Mobile: 16.65 Mbps
T-Mobile was declared as the fastest network in the United States during the testing period. The carrier's average LTE speed was 17.45 Mbps, up from 16.65 Mbps in OpenSignal's last report. Sprint's average LTE speed also rose to 9.76 Mbps, up from 8.99 Mbps in the previous study.

AT&T or Verizon remained the fastest network in select U.S. cities, including Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, San Diego, and San Francisco.

OpenSignal says its data is collected from regular consumer smartphones and recorded under conditions of normal usage, be it indoors, outdoors, in a city, or in the countryside. For this particular report, it said 5,073,211,200 data points were collected from 172,919 users between April 1 and June 30, 2017.

Article Link: Study Finds AT&T and Verizon Have Slower LTE Speeds After Launching Unlimited Data Plans

 

[dmcwally]

All networks need to stop being slum lords and actually invest in there capacity nationwide. Then this would not even be an issue. And sprint needs to invest in their coverage.

 

[DTphonehome]

OK, now take some of those profits from the monthly fees and use it to upgrade your networks. This is how competition is supposed to work. Oh, by the way, you might have to pay your executives a little bit less.

 

[Bunke101]

This study brought to you by AT&T and Verizon...

 

[44267547]

TMobile continues to impress me. More and more they are growing and expanding coverage.

 

[xpxp2002]

All networks need to stop being slum lords and actually invest in there capacity nationwide. Then this would not even be an issue. And sprint needs to invest in their coverage.

They're too busy spending that cash lobbying to end net neutrality so they can charge even more for the same service/access you get today...

 

[pat500000]

Sponsored by att and verizon.

 

[lyngo]

They're too busy spending that cash lobbying to end net neutrality so they can charge even more for the same service/access you get today...

Do you have a source for this information?

 

[Joe Rossignol]

This study brought to you by AT&T and Verizon...

Why would AT&T and Verizon have their hands dirty with a story claiming their networks have become slower?

 

[2010mini]

All networks need to stop being slum lords and actually invest in there capacity nationwide. Then this would not even be an issue. And sprint needs to invest in their coverage.

Unless the FCC gives them more frequency to use, there is nothing they can do.

 

[brendu]

The real takeaway here is that once again tmobile is the best carrier toward customers. Not that anyone should be surprised.

 

[Zaft]

So average speed with all carriers is around 13mb/s...

 

[itsjordieduh]

TMobile continues to impress me. More and more they are growing and expanding coverage.

I love T-Mobile! Although I live in a city with great coverage so I can't speak for everyone.

 

[busyscott]

Was on Verizon for a decade and switched to T-mobile two years ago. Amazing pricing, coverage keeps getting better (didn't have reception at my office when I first signed up, now I have full LTE there) but it's so cheap and you get so much more for your money. I've tried to go over my 10GB PER LINE and 20GB data pool PER LINE. I don't even know how I could use 30GB of data when Netflix and Apple Music doesn't count against data anyways. Happy to see them doing well.

 

[Bunke101]

Why would AT&T and Verizon have their hands dirty with a story claiming their networks have become slower?

First of all it was sarcasm and secondly, seriously? Do I really need to point out that they can use this study as "proof" that unlimited data is bad...

 

[T5BRICK]

Not surprising. I've noticed that Verizon took at hit since earlier this year.

 

[coolbreeze]

I'm super happy with T-Mobile. And it's going to be so good when 600 MHz is lit up later this year. Super coverage.

 

[barkomatic]

I'd rather take a 2Mbps speed hit and have unlimited data. The existing speeds I get are still more than fast enough to stream HD content.

 

[jimothyGator]

First of all it was sarcasm and secondly, seriously? Do I really need to point out that they can use this study as "proof" that unlimited data is bad...

The supply of critical thinking is clearly not unlimited.

Forgive me for answering for Joe, but no, I'm sure he wasn't being sarcastic, and yes, he's being serious. Why would AT&T and Verizon pay for a news story that shows there service quality has gotten worse? Seriously, can you answer that question?

Don't let your disdain for these two companies turn off your brains, people.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

OK, now take some of those profits from the monthly fees and use it to upgrade your networks. This is how competition is supposed to work. Oh, by the way, you might have to pay your executives a little bit less.

Compared to revenue and the type of infrastructure investment you're talking about, executive comp is nothing.

 

[kyleh22]

T-Mobile and Virgin are the best. Google Fi is on point as well if you don't have an apple phone. AT&T and Verizon have gorged their customers for too long. There is finally some serious competition.

 

[techwhiz]

The differences in those numbers is not statistically significant. One person can run the same test and get differing numbers from minute to minute. They measure average usage and while it's a lot of data points the data points between tests in Feb and Aug are different. For the vast majority of people it does't matter.

I sit here at my desk in Silicon Valley and I just ran a speed test on Verizon.
I am getting a 23ms Ping, 70.26 Mbps down and 26.18 Mbps up.
Next test 26ms, 78.12Mbps, 25.77Mbps.

 

[rjohnstone]

First of all it was sarcasm and secondly, seriously? Do I really need to point out that they can use this study as "proof" that unlimited data is bad...

If that were the case, why did T-Mobile's speed increase... they offer unlimited data as well.

 

[Cam Johnson]

I switched to T-Mobile almost 2 years ago and got ok speeds and coverage. I've watched both speed and coverage increase a lot in that time frame, now I've gotten as high as 205 Mbps at my house (I average 100+ no matter time of day). It's twice as fast as my fiber line, so I never even turn on Wi-Fi anymore. Yeah, I'm glad I switched.

 

[BigHonkingDeal]

Ok, my house..... flat state, 2 miles form the beach in metro area. I would kill for those speeds