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Verizon/AT&T LTE & the iPhone 5

E

El3ctronics

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 30, 2011
1,017
40
NYC
I'm currently an AT&T customer in the NYC area using the iPhone 4 and very happy with their service. Recently, I've been looking at Verizon solely due to the fact that they have LTE available in the city where AT&T is still on pretty slow 3G (around here it's less than 2 MB/s). That being said, I'm heavily committed to iOS after the amount of money I've invested in apps and I also believe it is the best mobile OS on the market which is why I'm reluctant to switch at this time.

Recent rumors have suggested that the iPhone 5 could include LTE which will put me in a tough situation. The only LTE plans that AT&T has announced so far is their initial markets (Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston & San Antonio) and no word about NYC at all. To me, it's worth paying the early termination fee (I'll be about 14 months into my contract in October) and switching to Verizon at that point. Their LTE speeds in NYC are incredible and would be a major advantage over the AT&T iPhone that can only connect to the 4G network is VERY few locations.

Anyone else in the same boat?
 
El3ctronics said:
I'm currently an AT&T customer in the NYC area using the iPhone 4 and very happy with their service. Recently, I've been looking at Verizon solely due to the fact that they have LTE available in the city where AT&T is still on pretty slow 3G (around here it's less than 2 MB/s). That being said, I'm heavily committed to iOS after the amount of money I've invested in apps and I also believe it is the best mobile OS on the market which is why I'm reluctant to switch at this time.

Recent rumors have suggested that the iPhone 5 could include LTE which will put me in a tough situation. The only LTE plans that AT&T has announced so far is their initial markets (Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston & San Antonio) and no word about NYC at all. To me, it's worth paying the early termination fee (I'll be about 14 months into my contract in October) and switching to Verizon at that point. Their LTE speeds in NYC are incredible and would be a major advantage over the AT&T iPhone that can only connect to the 4G network is VERY few locations.

Anyone else in the same boat?
Click to expand...

Verizon doesn't offer unltd data anymore.
 
Neither offer unlimited anymore. I've been kinda thinking the same thing but I got att when it was unlimited and to switch I would have to give that up, which I won't do yet. I wouldn't do anything though until we know for sure the next iphone is lte. It's true att hasn't gotten very far with there lte, but if the next iphone isn't lte it would be better to stick with att and get the hspa+ iphone. If the next iphone is lte, it shouldn't be long before att get's there lte up in running, especially in NY.
 
If the next gen iPhone isn't LTE then it's a no-brainer to stick with AT&T. HSPA+ speeds compared to Verizon's slow 3G network.
 
El3ctronics said:
If the next gen iPhone isn't LTE then it's a no-brainer to stick with AT&T. HSPA+ speeds compared to Verizon's slow 3G network.
Click to expand...

All the rumors I've seen ahve been that the 5th generation will NOT have LTE. The rumors I have seen is only hspa+. If you are referring to the rumors of LTE testing on iphones, its too close to release for that sort of testing to be for the 5th generation. If they are testing LTE I would imagine it is for next year's model.
 
AT&T will eventually get LTE data speeds and then the hype will die down. I'm holding out on the off chance that AT&T will grandfather my unlimited 3G into an unlimited 4G plan when they bring it up. Verizon did it but AT&T is so evil it wouldn't surprise me if they terminated all unlimited data at the end of users contracts.

If you're still on contract I'd wait even if you aren't on unlimited. It will cost you to switch and current crop of LTE capable handsets have *terrible* battery life. What's the point of LTE if your phone is dead?
 
My current speed is fine with me, and I have unlimited data and the $10/1000 texts plan. AT&T all the way, baby!
 
barkomatic said:
AT&T will eventually get LTE data speeds and then the hype will die down. I'm holding out on the off chance that AT&T will grandfather my unlimited 3G into an unlimited 4G plan when they bring it up. Verizon did it but AT&T is so evil it wouldn't surprise me if they terminated all unlimited data at the end of users contracts.

If you're still on contract I'd wait even if you aren't on unlimited. It will cost you to switch and current crop of LTE capable handsets have *terrible* battery life. What's the point of LTE if your phone is dead?
Click to expand...

Since they are going to throttle 3G unlimited users, I imagine 4G unlimited would be very, uh, limited if they did. I am hoping they revert back to true unlimited for 3G users when LTE goes wide. If I can watch streaming video over 3G then anything faster would be barely used by me, and I would imagine many others unless they are tethered.
 
El3ctronics said:
Neither does AT&T.
Click to expand...

Right but I'm assuming you're grandfathered into unltd data with AT&T like myself. Possibly when an LTE iPhone comes out and AT&T has LTE we will be offered unltd LTE data.

In the last month I've been getting great data speeds with AT&T, seems like they beefed up iPhone speeds. Verizon data speeds can't compare to AT&T's.
 
El3ctronics said:
I'm currently an AT&T customer in the NYC area using the iPhone 4 and very happy with their service. Recently, I've been looking at Verizon solely due to the fact that they have LTE available in the city where AT&T is still on pretty slow 3G (around here it's less than 2 MB/s). That being said, I'm heavily committed to iOS after the amount of money I've invested in apps and I also believe it is the best mobile OS on the market which is why I'm reluctant to switch at this time.

Recent rumors have suggested that the iPhone 5 could include LTE which will put me in a tough situation. The only LTE plans that AT&T has announced so far is their initial markets (Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston & San Antonio) and no word about NYC at all. To me, it's worth paying the early termination fee (I'll be about 14 months into my contract in October) and switching to Verizon at that point. Their LTE speeds in NYC are incredible and would be a major advantage over the AT&T iPhone that can only connect to the 4G network is VERY few locations.

Anyone else in the same boat?
Click to expand...

word?
 
If your betting on the future of LTE service than you got to go with Big Red. They have essentially won the who's got the better 4G network war before it started. They will have essentially the entire nation covered by the time AT&T is barely launching their LTE network. However, no need to jump ship and pay an ETF if the new iPhone doesn't even support LTE yet. Like a previous poster said, if it is HSPA+ only, than the best place for the time being will be AT&T. I'm sure AT&T is also banking on Apple not supporting LTE yet which will reward them for their HSPA+ upgrade then transition to LTE timeline. They would get to tout the only "4G" (not really) iPhone, and then hope by the time the real 4G LTE iPhone comes out they are in a better position network wise to compete with VZW. If the next iPhone surprises us with LTE, I think there will be a lot more defectors than their were with the IP4 launch.
 
haddman said:
If your betting on the future of LTE service than you got to go with Big Red. They have essentially won the who's got the better 4G network war before it started. They will have essentially the entire nation covered by the time AT&T is barely launching their LTE network. However, no need to jump ship and pay an ETF if the new iPhone doesn't even support LTE yet. Like a previous poster said, if it is HSPA+ only, than the best place for the time being will be AT&T. I'm sure AT&T is also banking on Apple not supporting LTE yet which will reward them for their HSPA+ upgrade then transition to LTE timeline. They would get to tout the only "4G" (not really) iPhone, and then hope by the time the real 4G LTE iPhone comes out they are in a better position network wise to compete with VZW. If the next iPhone surprises us with LTE, I think there will be a lot more defectors than their were with the IP4 launch.
Click to expand...

This post is RIGHT on the mark. If iPhone 5 is HSPA+ only then AT&T is the way to go. If it's LTE I, and I'm sure MANY others, will be jumping ship to Verizon.
 
wvphysics said:
Since they are going to throttle 3G unlimited users, I imagine 4G unlimited would be very, uh, limited if they did. I am hoping they revert back to true unlimited for 3G users when LTE goes wide. If I can watch streaming video over 3G then anything faster would be barely used by me, and I would imagine many others unless they are tethered.
Click to expand...

You should probably do a little more research :rolleyes:
 
While AT&T has only announced 3 Texas cities, Chicago and Atlanta, they say they will be covering over 70 million people by years end, which makes me believe they will be ramping up the amount of cities rather quickly in the next 4 months. NYC is obviously a major market that will get them over that 70 Million mark, so I would assume that New York would have LTE by years end, same with other major metro areas like SF, LA and Philly.
 
One thing i was just thinking about. the question if verizion is ready for the iphone 4g before att will apple still go ahead and release it or will they wait till att is also ready.
 
barkomatic said:
AT&T will eventually get LTE data speeds and then the hype will die down. I'm holding out on the off chance that AT&T will grandfather my unlimited 3G into an unlimited 4G plan when they bring it up. Verizon did it but AT&T is so evil it wouldn't surprise me if they terminated all unlimited data at the end of users contracts.

If you're still on contract I'd wait even if you aren't on unlimited. It will cost you to switch and current crop of LTE capable handsets have *terrible* battery life. What's the point of LTE if your phone is dead?
Click to expand...

If VZW offered unltd LTE then most likely AT&T would for existing customers. However since VZW doesn't offer unltd LTE then why should AT&T?
 
mpossoff said:
If VZW offered unltd LTE then most likely AT&T would for existing customers. However since VZW doesn't offer unltd LTE then why should AT&T?
Click to expand...

Verizon does offer unlimited 4G for any unlimited data user. They don't offer it to new subscribers. I think the poster you were replying to was saying that he has unlimited 3G with AT&T and is hoping AT&T allows unlimited 4G if you have an unlimited plan.
 
Obviously i'm a bit slow on this...but what is HSPA+? Is it like LTE? Is it available in the UK?

Also, does anyone know what coverage is like in UK for LTE? (Specifically O2)
 
mpossoff said:
If VZW offered unltd LTE then most likely AT&T would for existing customers. However since VZW doesn't offer unltd LTE then why should AT&T?
Click to expand...

Well, Verizon is grandfathering their 3G users to unlimited LTE when they renew on an LTE handset. They even offered unlimited LTE for new customers for a limited time.

I don't think AT&T will offer unlimited LTE data at any point, except *perhaps* they will grandfather their unlimited 3G users as an attempt at customer retention. If they force all 3G users onto LTE with data caps, I'll have less incentive to stick with AT&T when it comes time for me to upgrade. If I'm going to have a data cap, it might as well be on Verizon's network which is a year ahead of AT&T with more consistent service.
 
barkomatic said:
Well, Verizon is grandfathering their 3G users to unlimited LTE when they renew on an LTE handset. They even offered unlimited LTE for new customers for a limited time.

I don't think AT&T will offer unlimited LTE data at any point, except *perhaps* they will grandfather their unlimited 3G users as an attempt at customer retention. If they force all 3G users onto LTE with data caps, I'll have less incentive to stick with AT&T when it comes time for me to upgrade. If I'm going to have a data cap, it might as well be on Verizon's network which is a year ahead of AT&T with more consistent service.
Click to expand...

Customer retention would only work if the competition offered unltd LTE. Since Verizon doesn't offer unltd LTE there's no reason.
 
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