T-Mobile and Verizon Are Basically Tied in Network Speeds and So-Called 'Availability'

[sonicrobby]

I recently switched from ATT to T mobile. I saw no difference in speeds, but a huuuuuuuuge difference in my bill. While I like the service T mobile provides, I will say that it is lacking heavily in the coverage. With ATT I got 2 bars of LTE out in the bayou, with T mobile, Im lucky if I get 1 bar of 4G. Even at home in the city, I only get 2 bars of LTE on T mobile, when I got 5 from ATT. Ive had more "no service" with T mobile in a few months more than ATT the past 8 years combined. The good side on T mobile is that when connected to wifi, I can still send regular SMS and calls out even when there are no T mobile towers nearby. The shame is that the wifi at work isnt great either...

Im giving it a bit more time before jumping over to sprints $60 unlimited basic plan.

Congrats T mobile on the speed improvement; now focus on expanding the coverage.

 

[Kevtech1]

This is not relevant for the Southeast! Charlotte and Atlanta the fastest network is ATT hands down! So, that's great if you are in these other areas but it doesn't translate to where I am at.

 

[Bigsk8r]

In cities is one thing. I can't speak to that. It's the roads and interstates where the difference is clear. Verizon wins interstates and rural areas, for now.

I had a regional sales company in the Midwest for 8 years. Verizon was the only service that worked reliably. Now that I live in Texas, I have seen no evidence to support that much has changed. In greater metro areas, use the one you like the best. In the extreme rural, country, and boondocks... if you want the best chance at a good signal... it's Verizon.

 

[Born Again]

how is tmobile in los angeles?

 

[iMi]

We all have doubts about something, but I have no doubt that you just made this up.

About a year ago I drove from Iowa to LA and back via Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri with a Verizon iPad on my dash for navigation. As I expected there were areas in the mountains where I didn't have any data coverage, but for the most part I was on LTE. Never once did I have a working 3G connection and no LTE.

Verizon's strategy is to deploy LTE in as many places as possible and because of that, they have LTE coverage over a vast majority of the lower 48 including rural areas. They are in the middle of their LTE Advanced rollout, and that is coming to their entire network as well. No other carrier is close to Verizon in national LTE coverage, despite the deceptive numbers they(Sprint, T-Mobile) use in their ads.

There are individual areas of the country that other carriers are better than Verizon, but no one touches them overall. For the most part this is simply because Verizon does not own enough bandwidth in that area. That is the biggest hurdle to overcome when expanding, and that is why other carriers aren't really catching up to Verizon on a nationwide level.

Of course I made that up. That's how opinion works and I thought that was clearly implied in the way it was worded. I apologize if that wasn't clear. Thank you for sharing this information. If they are indeed deploying the latest LTE technology in middle-of-no-where, America, the I have to say that's fantastic.

It all boils down to what works for each individual. I never really go to rural areas, but I do travel to Asia, for example, and over there my T-mo phone works flawlessly and at a fraction of the cost. Verizon and AT&T is simply not an option unless you want to mortgage your house to pay that bill. Everyone always gets a local sim card to use there (and to have a local number so people there don't have to call long-distance to reach them). I don't need to do that. It costs me $.20 per minute to dial back home. Wifi calls, web and texting is totally free. When I'm there, I use WeChat.

Sounds like an awesome drive by the way!

 

[manu chao]

The 2% is within the already existing coverage - so it's really a moot statistic for comparison purposes. In other words, within T-Mobile's already existing coverage, they have 86% LTE availability, and with Verizon's already existing coverage, they have 88% LTE availability...

And this is a self-selecting group of testers. T-Mobile customers are much more likely to live and work in areas covered by T-Mobile than in areas where there is no or little coverage. If they lived in the latter parts, they wouldn't have chosen T-Mobile in the first part.

 

[MacSince1985]

Come to the Northeast

I am in the Northeast and have been a T-Mobile customer for a few years. I first started because they were the only carrier with wifi calling at the time and I could not get signal inside my house from any carrier. Free international data roaming was just frosting on the cake.
I have noticed significant improvements over the year and I'm getting signal in more and more areas. Sometimes where friends with AT&T or Verizon can't get anything. That's rather empirical data, but don't judge today's coverage based on your experience from a year ago.

 

[manu chao]

About a year ago I drove from Iowa to LA and back via Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri with a Verizon iPad on my dash for navigation. As I expected there were areas in the mountains where I didn't have any data coverage, but for the most part I was on LTE. Never once did I have a working 3G connection and no LTE.

That is probably also because you need a CDMA phone to use Verizon's 3G network, whereas non-CDMA, 'GSM' LTE phones (if they support the right bands) can work on Verizon's LTE network. That's an incentive for Verizon to roll out LTE to as much as possible of their network.

 

[truthertech]

Agreed but if you read threads on Verizon and ATT, you get much more of a consensus. I like T-Mobile but, from personal experience, the rural coverage makes it unusable for me (I had to switch last year from T-Mobile to ATT).

Thanks, Curious if you've checked Root Metrics site to see if their testing of your area corresponds with your actual experience?

 

[Bako-MacAddict]

That's good on paper for T-Mobile but I can't trust them. I tried them one time and when I would go into the gym, or any building, the reception would be horrible.

I recently tried T-Mobile moving from At&T. You are right, you couldn't say it any better. Some people have a different opinion on it depending where they live which is understandable. Needless to say, I switched to Verizon and couldn't be happier.

 

[2298754]

I am in the Northeast and have been a T-Mobile customer for a few years. I first started because they were the only carrier with wifi calling at the time and I could not get signal inside my house from any carrier. Free international data roaming was just frosting on the cake.
I have noticed significant improvements over the year and I'm getting signal in more and more areas. Sometimes where friends with AT&T or Verizon can't get anything. That's rather empirical data, but don't judge today's coverage based on your experience from a year ago.

Where are you in the Northeast?

I frequent NH and Maine. TMo isn't even in the same league as Verizon or AT&T up there. Not even close.

 

[cliffster82]

You shouldn't be on your phone while driving

Is there a problem with talking on the phone in the car? Or using LTE when riding shotgun? What is the angle here? Anyway, nothing worse when you need to make a call or look something up and you either have 3G or no service..

 

[639051]

I tried T-Mobile, NO WAY can they claim availability the same as Verizon. Anyone who believes that is a shill for T-Mobile. Just look at the coverage maps, ZOOM IN and you see huge swaths of what appears to be T-Mobile native coverage dissolve into roaming partners.

While they have made HUGE leaps, there is no way they are anywhere close to Verizon or AT&T.

 

[tonyr6]

T-Mobile is fine in NYC and NJ but in PA it might as well be called AT&T Roaming. Most areas in PA all I get is stupid Roaming on AT&T where I can make calls but can't use data. Yes you can be driving and get LTE and the next turn it goes to AT&T R.

Also in PA areas where there is LTE when I go indoors even with open windows I get AT&T R, E or No signal. Don't believe in the useless T-Mobile maps. If you see a area say "Fair Signal outdoors and indoors " that means "No Signal outdoors and indoors".

 

[fontman]

Verizon is fighting back against T-Mobile's recent attempts to steal the network spotlight as the so-called "Un-carrier," according to the results of OpenSignal's latest State of Mobile Networks report published today.

Verizon regained a statistical tie with T-Mobile in overall network speeds, with an average download speed of 14.63 Mbps versus 14.7 Mbps for T-Mobile, according to OpenSignal. The metric factors in combined 3G and LTE speeds, in addition to the availability of each network technology, which can affect overall speeds.

Meanwhile, T-Mobile came within 2 percentage points of Verizon's lead in nationwide 4G LTE availability, according to OpenSignal. The report found T-Mobile customers had an LTE connection available to them 86.6% of the time, up from 83.2% in August 2016, compared to Verizon's leading 88.2% availability.

It is important to note that OpenSignal's "availability" measurement does not reflect geographical or population-based coverage.The two carriers won or shared every award in every category of the report, leaving AT&T and Sprint with zero accolades.

Verizon still appears to have the faster network in a number of metro areas, including Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco.Verizon had the lowest average LTE latency, the delay data experiences as it travels between points in the network, at 59.84 ms, compared to 61.28 ms for Sprint, 61.56 ms for T-Mobile, and 65.62 ms for AT&T. T-Mobile had the lowest average 3G latency at 115.76ms, according to OpenSignal.

OpenSignal said it parsed 4.6 billion measurements collected by 169,683 smartphone users in the fourth quarter of 2016 to gauge the 3G and 4G performance of the "Big Four" networks in the United States: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. Read the full report for the complete results and methodology.

Article Link: T-Mobile and Verizon Are Basically Tied in Network Speeds and So-Called 'Availability'

 

[JonathanK81]

I wasn't directing that at you specifically. Boy if you only knew what it was like in California.

I have to ask, I couldn't tell if you meant AT&T was great in California, or sucked I've been with AT&T in California for 7 years now (much longer if you count the Cingular and Pac Bell Wireless Days). Never a problem. I constantly drive from Orange County to Sacramento and back. Never an issue no matter where I am. The worst instances of service (and even then it's fine) is when I'm near an Indian Casino. There are a few small patches of road where service will sometimes go.

 

[fontman]

This is just silly . Some providers work better in other areas based on the Tech . and tower resources . They all can be bad in some areas and good in others . One note Verizon service works better out in the sticks as there tech travel long distance better .

 

[CrzyP]

No... just no.

Visit Northern Arizona and you will see why Verizon is better.

Yep. Was just up there a few weeks ago. Terrible T-Mobile coverage. Same can be said for southern AZ as well.

 

[Old Muley]

Come to Wisconsin, outside of Madison/Milwaukee it's awful, north of Green Bay nonexistent.

You're referring to T Moble, right? My Verizon 6s gets a good signal all the way up in Lac Du Flambeau, but my sister-in-law's T Moble is useless.

 

[smirking]

Coverage-wise, no way is T-Mobile anywhere that close to Verizon.

I usually find T-Mobile to be close to all or nothing. It's either blazing fast or it's basically unusable. I keep Verizon on my iPhone and have an iPad on T-Mobile. Between the two, I'm usually able to get a reliable hotspot when I need data when I'm traveling. I try to use T-Mobile as much as I can since their data plans are cheaper than Verizon's, but most of the time Verizon is what I'm on.
[doublepost=1486581593][/doublepost]

Yep. Was just up there a few weeks ago. Terrible T-Mobile coverage. Same can be said for southern AZ as well.

Yeah, go on RootMetrics.com and lookup the California Coast up north where it's basically all or mostly rural after San Francisco. The only reliable carrier in their database is Verizon for the entire upper third of the state.

 

[grkm3]

I've had Verizon for over 15 years back when they were singular wireless and finally had enough of there greedy CEO.

we have 5 lines and 3 on grandfathered unlimited data and one flip phone and one 2gb line and our bill is going to 345 a month in a few months when 2 lines 2 year contracts are up.

went to TMobile and they will give us 5 lines unlimited data for 180 a month.

I'm sorry but I'll deal with a little worse coverage and save 165 a month.they are also giving us 150 Visa gift card per line for switching.

that's 750 in gift cards!

the rep and Verizon said he would switch also when he tried to match T-Mobile.

 

[2298754]

I've had Verizon for over 15 years back when they were singular wireless and finally had enough of there greedy CEO.

Wait what?

 

[joy.757]

And here am, with the cheapest AT&T plan….

 

[JonathanK81]

I've had Verizon for over 15 years back when they were singular wireless and finally had enough of there greedy CEO.

we have 5 lines and 3 on grandfathered unlimited data and one flip phone and one 2gb line and our bill is going to 345 a month in a few months when 2 lines 2 year contracts are up.

went to TMobile and they will give us 5 lines unlimited data for 180 a month.

I'm sorry but I'll deal with a little worse coverage and save 165 a month.they are also giving us 150 Visa gift card per line for switching.

that's 750 in gift cards!

the rep and Verizon said he would switch also when he tried to match T-Mobile.

I've been with AT&T for almost that amount of time, before it was even AT&T Wireless, I was with them when THEY were Cingular Wireless. I was actually with them in San Francisco as Pac Bell Wireless, and then was there when that became Cingular Wireless with the new name and logo. Hopefully you're just getting them confused. Verizon originated from I think Bell Atlantic and I know Vodafone.

 

[newyorkone]

NY is not the Northeast.

Come north to Massachusetts, NH, and Maine. T-Mobile is subpar across most of those states unless you're in the middle of a city.

Hardly equivalent to Verizon

NY is indeed included in what most people call the "Northeast." The states you are referring to are part of what is collectively called "New England." Crappy T-Mobile service up there...duly noted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeastern_United_States