Verizon Named 2018's Fastest Mobile Network in PCMag's Annual Carrier Showdown

[Wide opeN]

Use what works best for you. This anointing of Verizon and loathing of T-Mobile is laughable.

I've been with T-Mobile since Oct 14' and have worked in a high rise that entire time and NEVER do I lack for coverage or building penetration. I honestly think Verizon hires people for forums, I really do.

What else could explain such sheepish behavior. The truth!? Far from it.

 

[AdonisSMU]

AT&T sucks. What else is new.

 

[Michael Scrip]

Plus, another thing, high speeds on downloads isn't as important on mobile devices as it is on a desktop. Steady connections for streaming, that's what important. And anything steady about 5-10 mbps will let you see good video. I worked late one night and caught up with that night's Game of Thrones as I rode home (in the passenger seat) watching that night's edition on my old iPhone 6. Not a single glitch.

That's a good point.

Everyone is so concerned with having the "fastest" speeds on LTE... yet it doesn't really matter when the source of the video only serves it at a specific speed or bitrate.

There's not much point in having an 80mbps LTE connection when you're watching an 8mbps Netflix stream.

I would think capacity (more connections per tower) is more important than maximum speed.

That said... higher speeds are nice if you have to tether a laptop. Just don't spend hours watching Youtube over your tethered mobile connection.

To be honest... I rarely have to tether... and I can count on one hand the times where I was stuck waiting for a "slow" transfer on my mobile phone. My data requirements on my mobile phone are pretty lean.

But I guess there are some people for whom this first-place trophy for data speeds is at the utmost importance.

 

[Dodgeman]

I do not care about the fastest speeds I just want my stuff to work.

 

[Swift]

Great to know, thanks!

But when deployed, that bandwidth is stellar. Can you get a radio station indoors? Yes! It's the higher frequencies that have trouble with walls.
[doublepost=1528849826][/doublepost]

Sprint shall probably rename themselves as “Crawl”, since “Sprint” is false advertisement.

Well, here's where I tentatively agree with merger with T-mobile. If they invest in the newest tech in their towers, they have the numbers and the bandwidth to beat Verizon to 5G.

 

[FelixDerKater]

AT&T being in 3rd place surprises me.

 

[tCdemon]

How do we compare to carriers in other countries?

Shhhhh...we don't talk about that!...But I was in Mexico a week ago for almost two weeks, and the service was so fast! Faster than T-Mobile...same phone.

 

[acorntoy]

The past two places I’ve lived Verizon has always had at least three bars of LTE - that’s completely clogged. It truly sucks to have 5 bars of LTE and it still takes 40 minutes to load a map.

My friends with t-mobile always have less service, but with Radically faster speeds. Obviously it doesn’t relate to the country, but it seems like Verizon has dropped the ball in CA.

 

[tCdemon]

I never understood having the fastest speeds! If they cap speeds to 20 Mbps to everyone then there will be more bandwidth to go around. 20 Mbps is more than enough on a smart phone.

 

[WannaGoMac]

I setup my European phone number. I pay $6 (six) per month for unlimited internet/unlimited calls and texts anywhere in Europe. I regularly get 150 MBps download speed on LTE. Pretty incredible how far behind we are...

In the US we pay $120/month for two lines, grandfathered AT&T unlimited iPhone accounts.

Its your fault you pay that much, those old att accounts are rip off nowadays. Get yourself a modern account or a MVNO.

 

[rjohnstone]

In Phoenix, Verizon was rated the fastest, but only had a 93% reliability score.
This was my issue with Verizon in the past and why I left and never went back to them.
I tried T-Mobile for a year, but had the same reliability issues.
AT&T scored 98% reliability in the Phoenix area.
The speed difference is marginal at best (average of less than 5Mbps difference).
I'll stick with reliability over a slightly faster connection.

 

[techwhiz]

I like Verizon.
I had Sprint to test it out on an Essential PH-1. Spring was terrible the phone is great.
Sprint just couldn't keep up. Here at my desk I get 131Mbps down and 32 up on Verizon.