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

[Braderunner]

Anybody have Sprint?

 

[freediverx]

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...

No, because T-Mobile has been growing their subscriber base like crazy AND they've been offering unlimited data longer than their competitors. Yet their speeds have remained consistent or faster.

Plus beyond a certain point, unlimited data is more important than absolute speed. I'll take unlimited data at 10Mbps any day over a severely restricted account at twice the speed.
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T-Mobile and Virgin are the best.

T-Mobile yes, but Virgin? Lol, they run on the Sprint network, by far the worst of the bunch.
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The differences in those numbers is not statistically significant.

This matters:

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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.

Couldn't be happier after switching from AT&T to T-Mobile months ago. Not only is it faster and significantly cheaper, but their website and customer service are better by leaps and bounds. Searching for info in ATT's website or god forbid, trying to call them on the phone, is the most infuriating experience imaginable.
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Tmobile has excellent service, but their coverage is garbage.

That depends entirely on your area. You can't make a blanket statement like that based solely on your personal experience. There are maps available that display coverage strength for the different carriers. My only complaint with T-Mobile is that because they use higher bandwidth spectrum, they have poor coverage inside buildings - something that should improve with their recent purchase of low frequency spectrum.
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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.

One problem with the iPhone 7 models is that Apple switched from Qualcomm to Intel radios, which are weaker. Flagship Android phones get stronger signals and better performance because of this.

 

[surfologist]

Ok, my house..... flat state, 2 miles form the beach in metro area. I would kill for those speeds View attachment 711551

Where in Miami? You're on 4g, either have that fixed at the store or its just a small area, maybe inside or around your house, which should be fine with wifi.
But the main problem is you need your phone to say LTE and that could be a problem with your phone because miami is solid LTE almost everywhere.

 

[BigHonkingDeal]

Where in Miami? You're on 4g, either have that fixed at the store or its just a small area, maybe inside or around your house, which should be fine with wifi.
But the main problem is you need your phone to say LTE and that could be a problem with your phone because miami is solid LTE almost everywhere.

In my house location it goes in & out LTE constantly that's why I keep it on WIFI to avoid draining the battery.... reception varies widely all over Miami.

My point still stands tho, how can you have dead spots in 2017? Flat state with no tall buildings in my neighborhood....

 

[kazmac]

One problem with the iPhone 7 models is that Apple switched from Qualcomm to Intel radios, which are weaker. Flagship Android phones get stronger signals and better performance because of this.

That was the only good thing about my android phone, the WiFi / LTE signal.

 

[determined09]

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.

I have a friend with T-mobile and she recently told me that she is without service sometimes for 3-4 hours some days.

In regards to this article, recently I was in the basement of hospital and I went to look something up on my cell phone. Then I saw the no LTE service on my phone, this was the first time this has ever happened to me. And I think is due to the fact that they had that unlimited data promotion. Now, they have too many people on their already overloaded LTE networks.

 

[lowendlinux]

I use Ting on a GSM phone so I'm using T-mobile and I'm in the middle of now where upstate NY and I really don't have the problems that I'm reading about here.

 

[ovo6]

This very inaccurate. Maybe T-Mobile has faster speed on some places but att has better service simples as that . There's been multiple places that I had coverage and lte and my friend would have zero or poor , i live in Miami by the way,
Same goes when we go inside stores or buildings so fake news

 

[bopajuice]

I wanted tmobile to be good and I gave them a shot, unless you're in a city with amazing coverage, they suck.

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.

The only way your comments could mean something is if you did the same trip with a different carrier. How do you know the other carriers would have had better service?

We really can't compare area to area and be fair. Service varies so much. I though AT&T was the best until my wife went with her sister to Maui. My wife couldn't get service with AT&T, but her sister had no problem with Verizon.

 

[jeyf]

cell phone coverage maps do not have enough resolution to be useful.

wifi phone calls were possible on the iPhone6 back in 2014

 

[Mariechovi]

I live in southern NH and my AT&T LTE prepaid service speed 5 mins ago clocked 17mpbs up, 9 down on my Iphone 6 and Android tablet.