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Study Finds AT&T and Verizon Have Slower LTE Speeds After Launching Unlimited Data Plans
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Use some of that critical thinking and realize that the reduction in speed is insignificant to consumers, however this study could easily be used to drive the narrative that "unlimited data is bad for our networks and for our customers. For the sake of everyone's service, we will now end unlimited data."
It's not rocket surgery...
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If you read my original post, I only stated that it was AT&T and Verizon that paid for this study.
I think some people have taken this simple joke a little too seriously... Lighten up people...
I have noticed this. Definitely slowed down once I switched to unlimited. T-Mobile is getting better and better, especially in the Philadelphia area, but it sucks when you travel outside of major metropolitan areas.
I was pretty miffed that they decided to raise one another lus rates by $5 and effectively had no reason for it. That's not to say this isn't ALSO ********. Buuuuuut I'm pretty through defending anyone anymore
Lol.
This story only has meaning if we know what the average data usage is for each company.
I wanted tmobile to be good and I gave them a shot, unless you're in a city with amazing coverage, they suck.
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
I went on a cross country road trip and the amount of times I had no signal was scary. I'm thankful I paid for a built in gps otherwise I would have been screwed driving across the US.
And even when you have coverage, there's no guarantee it'll be strong. There were times when I had 3-4 bars outside and then I'd go inside a dennys and get a window booth and I'd have no service.
Tmobile has excellent service, but their coverage is garbage. It's the only reason anyone puts up with att and Verizon blatantly violating net neutrality rules.
Unfortunate but true. My Verizon service hasn't been great with the 7+ and I've noticed absolutely awful service on the commute home; feels like I am on 3G waiting for pages to load. Just another reason why I'll jettison a more expensive iPhone when it comes time to upgrade.
The test must have been limited to the 1 sq meter of town where you can get a TMob signal.
Seriously though this is much ado about nothing. The "before" and "after" numbers are not materially different, especially in relation to the savings many people were able to take advantage of.
That is not true, T-Mobile has eliminated data caps as well and has increased their speed, which proves it is possible, it is not that the frequency is overcrowded, the congestion is most likely happening at the cell tower side.
Exactly, depending on the time of day or what one is doing it doesn't matter.
I have yet to have a problem with grandfathered unlimited ATT, when their towers work
BTW for all the bad mouthing of and badwill towards (incl. me) ATT they shocked me,when I noticed problems in my area and got to talk to a live real person.
And, (the kicker) he knew what he was doing and not in India. Analyzed that the cell tower was being repaired.
Better than the customer reps who have you turn on and off the phone again.....LOL
It really depends on how long ago this was, they have really stepped up their game over the past 6 months.
I must be very lucky. According to speedtest app, I have got 75 Mbps today and 140 Mbps a few days before . I have AT&T unlimited with my ipad (data only) for 30 dollars per month. They do throttle down if your accumulated data usage exceeds 22 GB in a given billing period. But I have never exceeded the limit. Perhaps I should give it a try and exceed it this time around just to see what happens.
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TMobile has far fewer customers than AT&T and Verizon, though. They haven't reached capacity yet, and their infrastructre is not as mature as AT&T and Verizon, so they DO have room to expand.
I've got a simpler way for AT&T and Verizon to end their unlimited data plans: Simply end their unlimited data plans. Boom, done and done, no paying MacRumors to run a story required, and certainly no rocket surgery.
Why don't they just end the plans? Because competition drove them to offer them in the first place. Has the competitive landscape changed in the few months since they started offering such plans? Nope, if anything, wireless service has gotten more competitive.
Crazy conspiracy theories are entertaining, but to believe that AT&T and Verizon are paying for negative press is insane. If anything, they'd want to downplay this news, so people don't switch to providers not mentioned in this report.
I'm on AT&T Unlimited Plus and have definitely noticed a slow down.
I love the competition T-mobile brings, and I really like the CEO. However, T-Mobile sucks out side of major cities. I live in a suburb 60 miles east of LA, and there's no way I could go to T-mobile.
I love the competition T-mobile brings, and I really like the CEO. However, T-Mobile sucks out side of major cities. I live in a suburb 60 miles east of LA, and there's no way I could go to T-mobile.
T-mobile is awesome.
They are really impressive when you touchdown in a foreign country half way across the world and get a welcome text letting you know that all your web and texting is FREE and calls are only $0.20 a minute. All before you even reach the gate.
Love it.
No. Anyone who understands what net neutrality is about reads that and thinks, "Huh?...wasted my time reading that one".
Still faster than my home DSL connection that I use to do actual work. I would gladly use throttled data on my mobile devices if they'd do just a little better than 128 Kbps or similar. At some point, cell companies might consider factoring speed and not (just? or at all?) data caps into the prices people would pay for plans--I'd gladly pay less or get more data for the same price because I don't need 10 Mbps or more on a cell phone.
I would gladly use throttled data on my mobile devices if they'd do just a little better than 128 Kbps or similar. At some point, cell companies might consider factoring speed and not (just? or at all?) data caps into the prices people would pay for plans--I'd gladly pay less or get more data for the same price because I don't need 10 Mbps or more on a cell phone.The real takeaway here is how much Sprint sucks. Even though their speed increased, they are still way behind. And, they are not making enough money to invest what is needed to bring them up to par anytime soon. By the time they are near the current speeds of the other 3 carriers, those 3 will be even faster. Sprint has never been a well ran company.