The only place where I've been able to consistently pull 5mbps+ is north jersey. Most other places I go to (central, northeast, and south east PA; NYC area; DC area) I get about 2mbps and 200ms pings; just like Verizon. Lte offers 20mbps consistently; I've gotten as high as 50mbps with the Verizon iPad 3. The AT&T speeds are pathetic compared to that. Not to mention the pings (often below 50 with lte). As Verizon's lte coverage grows, the hspa+ advantage will diminish. The 4S would certainly be inferior to an lte iPhone.
Connecticut is mostly 3-6mbps (except Fairfield County), Ohio is always insane, even with PCS doing 4-7, New Hampshire is usually like 3, Michigan is 6-8, Boston is around 3. In areas I'm pulling 2-3, Verizon is barely getting over 1. NYC is another story. 3mbps by the Apple store, but data speeds are all over the place. One block it'll pull over 3mpbs, the next one it's pulling 200kbps, and in some spots like Macy's, Times Square, and Rockefeller Center, the data is just totally dead. To me, the speeds are fine, the only upside to LTE would be in the urban core of places like NYC, where HSPA+ is dysfunctional, and I'm assuming EDGE is too (I wasn't JB'ed at the time to be able to force EDGE). Everywhere else, HSPA+ is more than sufficient.
I agree. But BigAW seems to feel that a 4S on HSPA+ would be comparable to an iPhone 5 on vzw lte. Except in extreme low density areas, HSPA wouldn't hold a candle to lte.
Um, no. I said that the EVDO iPhone 4S is a turd bird because it's a lot slower than the AT&T iPhone 4S or Verizon 4G LTE. I also said that I don't see any reason to upgrade to the iPhone 5 on AT&T, because on AT&T, LTE doesn't really matter since HSPA+ is very good in most places (i.e. not Manhattan).
Oh. Well... Yeah, your tune will change. The cell towers are just too saturated in the east. Almost impossible to use 3G in NYC and Long Island except during extreme hours (say 4AM). Even at my parents' house (middle of nowhere PA), the 3G is a lot more sluggish than cable. Changing the APN to wap.cingular sometimes helps though
I know Boston is historically a Verizon stronghold, but I had an excellent experience with AT&T there a few weeks back. Admittedly, I was there on a weekend, although I was in several incredibly crowded tourist traps that would be busier on a weekend, and I was still pulling 3mbps. It was almost weird having AT&T hold up that well in a crowd of iPhone-toting tourists.
It has nothing to do with East/West, it's the density of some cities. SF and the valley has a similar problem, although it's roots are in too many geeks pulling too much data on a network spaced for coverage on 850, not capacity. The East does tend to have older, more dense cities, but some area that are built up like downtown SF also have issues.
