AT&T Tops 3G Wireless Performance Study
PCWorld reports on the results of its recent 13-city performance tests of wireless carriers in the United States, and Apple's iPhone partner AT&T came out well ahead of the pack in both upload and download speeds while also faring well in reliability.
In looking specifically at the iPhone, AT&T again fared well compared to flagship handsets on other carriers, offering significantly higher download and upload speeds with 91% reliability, only marginally lower than the G1 on T-Mobile and the HTC Hero on Sprint.
AT&T's efforts to address performance issues in the New York City and San Francisco markets also appear to be paying off, with PCWorld's testing revealing average download speeds tripling over a previous survey in New York City and jumping 40% in San Francisco.
Overall reliability also improved for AT&T, with successful connections achieved on 94% of attempts, up from only 68% on the previous survey and on par with results for Sprint and ahead of T-Mobile and Verizon on an overall basis. PCWorld's testing did, however, reveal significant reliability weaknesses in San Francisco, with only 55% of connections being successful in its smartphone testing.
Complete data and analysis is available in the article, which covers results from twenty locations in each of thirteen cities: Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New Orleans, New York City, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle.
After registering the lowest average download speeds in our 3G performance tests last spring, AT&T's network turned in download speeds that were 84 percent better than the numbers from eight months ago; in our latest tests, AT&T's download speeds were 67 percent faster on average than those of the other three largest U.S. wireless providers--Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon.
In looking specifically at the iPhone, AT&T again fared well compared to flagship handsets on other carriers, offering significantly higher download and upload speeds with 91% reliability, only marginally lower than the G1 on T-Mobile and the HTC Hero on Sprint.
AT&T's efforts to address performance issues in the New York City and San Francisco markets also appear to be paying off, with PCWorld's testing revealing average download speeds tripling over a previous survey in New York City and jumping 40% in San Francisco.
Overall reliability also improved for AT&T, with successful connections achieved on 94% of attempts, up from only 68% on the previous survey and on par with results for Sprint and ahead of T-Mobile and Verizon on an overall basis. PCWorld's testing did, however, reveal significant reliability weaknesses in San Francisco, with only 55% of connections being successful in its smartphone testing.
Complete data and analysis is available in the article, which covers results from twenty locations in each of thirteen cities: Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New Orleans, New York City, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle.
Top Rated Comments
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26 months ago
Finally some truth about the 3G networks. ATT Customer Service is still bad, but happy to see them at the top of the pack when it comes to speed.
26 months ago
My personal experience with the iPhone on AT&T and the Droid on Verizon in the Los Angeles area is not reflected in this chart. The Droid on the Verizon network was very noticeably faster that the iPhone on AT&T 3G.
Guess it just depends on where you are...
Guess it just depends on where you are...
26 months ago
Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut … according to all the tech pundits that live in New York and San Francisco — Verizon is the best?!?!
:rolleyes:
Like any service, it only matters what the service is like in your specific location.
:rolleyes:
Like any service, it only matters what the service is like in your specific location.
26 months ago
Yeah those speeds are about right:
However there are times I am below 500k in download speed and have even gotten speeds that were 50k download and upload was 0k while on 3G. Weird, but expected. This is AT&T we're talking about right?
However there are times I am below 500k in download speed and have even gotten speeds that were 50k download and upload was 0k while on 3G. Weird, but expected. This is AT&T we're talking about right?
26 months ago
I would agree service with AT&T in Seattle is pretty good.
No complaints here overall.
No complaints here overall.
26 months ago
But... but... Verizon has that map that has nearly the entire US painted red! They therefore must be better! :rolleyes:
26 months ago
I’m surprised AT&T hasn’t touted these improvements in ads. (At least I haven’t seen them do so.)
My medium-sized city never seemed to have a problem EXCEPT in a few very small holes where coverage was just plain missing. Like 10-foot holes... one right by my friend’s house and one right by the Apple Store :o
My medium-sized city never seemed to have a problem EXCEPT in a few very small holes where coverage was just plain missing. Like 10-foot holes... one right by my friend’s house and one right by the Apple Store :o
26 months ago
regardless of the numbers, i still feel AT&T has a long way to go to delivering a reliable wireless experience to users. I'm in New York every week and several times during the day I can't access the 3G network for no apparent reason. I hope that AT&T doesn't look at surveys like this and use them as an excuse to drag their feet with improvements.
To me, this tells me that AT&T is basically the skinniest kid at the beginning of fat camp.
To me, this tells me that AT&T is basically the skinniest kid at the beginning of fat camp.
26 months ago
Yes, I think we all know that if you find a spot with 100% AT&T, you will get the absolute fastest speeds. No question.
The problem is that AT&T's signals dont deal with urban landscapes very well... a few tall buildings (or a few thousand tall buildings) drown out AT&T's signals.
In midtown NYC, finding a signal at ALL is no easy feat, so download speeds are a moot point. Never mind being INSIDE an aforementioned tall building. I would sacrifice speed just to have a signal that could do crazy things like bounce off buildings or go through a window. Maybe my expectations are too high. Regardless, I have Blackberry Verizon service inside my office, and zero AT&T iPhone service.
The problem is that AT&T's signals dont deal with urban landscapes very well... a few tall buildings (or a few thousand tall buildings) drown out AT&T's signals.
In midtown NYC, finding a signal at ALL is no easy feat, so download speeds are a moot point. Never mind being INSIDE an aforementioned tall building. I would sacrifice speed just to have a signal that could do crazy things like bounce off buildings or go through a window. Maybe my expectations are too high. Regardless, I have Blackberry Verizon service inside my office, and zero AT&T iPhone service.
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