Six Major 3G and 4G Networks Tested Nationwide 115
adeelarshad82 writes "PCMag recently tested six 3G and 4G networks to determine which ones were the fastest (and slowest) in 18 different US cities. They focused on data, not calls, and used their own testing script and methodology, which combined various kinds of uploads and downloads. Using laptops, more than a dozen people ran more than 10,000 tests; they found AT&T is both the fastest national 3G network, and the least consistent. Sprint's 3G system was the slowest of the 'big four' carriers, but the most consistent. When the test results were broken down by regions, AT&T led on speed in the Southeast, Central, and West, but T-Mobile took the crown in the Northeast region. Sprint's 4G network was fast where it was available, but it was surprisingly slower than 3G in some cities. The fastest AT&T download seen, at 5.05 megabits/sec, was right behind Apple's headquarters at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino, CA. The fastest connection in any of the tests was a blazing 9.11 megabits down on Sprint 4G in the Midtown neighborhood of Atlanta, GA. The slowest city, on average, was Raleigh, with average 3G downloads of 880kbits/sec."
I use Clear 4G In Baltimore (Score:3, Informative)
What about latency? (Score:5, Informative)
The problem with AT&T isn't speed, it's latency. I often had to wait ten seconds or more for a data request to be met, and often the software would timeout before that happened (which meant I would get no data at all). Once a download actually started, it was very fast, but so what?
Re:Verizon isn't "3G" (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Verizon isn't "3G" (Score:5, Informative)
"GSM" 2G is TMDA (time division) and just isn't adequate anymore.
LTE is an interesting beast. It uses CDMA but any user can get multiple channels (if available) at a time. The channel allocation is on a time interval.
"GSM" was dead after EDGE. If you are referring to the actual technology that was 2G GSM. However many people now use it interchangeably with UMTS/W-CDMA.. which causes lots of confusion.
Oh, and just to establish my credentials.. I'm a hardware engineer at a major cell phone chip company. I've built CDMA and UMTS base stations.
Re:Verizon (Score:2, Informative)
Since these tests were all done in major cities, Verizon's major selling point is instantly made irrelevant.
I live and work in the largest city in the country, and I assure you that Verizon's major selling point is never irrelevant. Currently I have a Verizon phone and a T Mobile phone, up until 4 months ago I had a Verizon phone and an AT&T phone. Even in the city, T Mobile and AT&T coverage is crap. Their signal is often weak, it drops frequently, 3G is spotty at best, even 2G is spotty. My Verizon phone on the other hand always works, 100% of the time. I've had a Verizon phone the longest, about 10 years now. I honestly can't remember the last time it dropped a call, or I couldn't make a call because I didn't have a signal, or couldn't browse the web because I had no data connection, but it was definitely at least 5 years ago. Meanwhile the T Mobile Blackberry I have right now is barely usable unless there's WiFi nearby. In my mind, bandwidth is irrelevant, coverage is everything. I don't really give a shit if the AT&T phone could download something 10x faster, since I can't actually make use of that bandwidth without a fucking signal.
Re:Verizon isn't "3G" (Score:2, Informative)
3G has come to mean "GSM network".
Bullshit. You can't just redefine terms because you don't understand what they mean.
For the painfully ignorant:
1G was analog voice
2G was digital voice
"2.5G" was an attempt to piggyback data onto voice channels
3G is purpose-build digital data.
EV-DO (verizon 3G) is definitely a dedicated data network, and definitely 3G (multi-megabit) caliber.
The way you use terms like "CDMA" and "GSM" makes them meaningless. GSM is a widespread, 2G, voice-only standard. HSDPA is not GSM. LTE is not GSM. CDMA is a channel control protocol that underlies lots of protocols, from IS-95 (2G voice) to HSDPA.
Re:Verizon isn't "3G" (Score:4, Informative)
OFDM is an extension of this that offers more features, data throughput, etc. You can easily visualize LTE as many small CDMA channels where users get one or more of these channels during a time interval.
I doesn't much matter what happens outside the air interface, and it has no bearing on the rest of the network. Its all high speed backhaul anyway. You can plug in whatever you want.
Hell I can plug a Verizon femto cell into my Comcast connection and it becomes a small CDMA node. I hardly think you can call this an end to end technology that uses CDMA.