PC World data says AT&T’s 3G service more reliable on average than Verizon’s

John Brownlee ()

PC World data says AT&T’s 3G service more reliable on average than Verizon’s

AT&T’s 3G service may be widely reviled, new data from PC World in collaboration with wireless analysis firm Novarum indicates that not only has Ma Bell done a lot over the course of the last year to shore up thew weaknesses in its network, but that in most cities it’s one of the fastest and most reliable networks around.

The study compares all four major U.S. wireless carriers’ in 13 “broadly representative” cities. Between December 2009 to January 2010, roughly 51,000 separate tests were then run.

The results are surprising. Using a notebook computer with a 3G card, AT&T has the fastest downloads in 11 out of 13 cities, and the fastest 3G uploads in all cities. As far as smartphones were concerned, AT&T had the fastest download speeds in nine out of thirteen cities, and again the fastest uploads in town.

No one’s arguing that AT&T has fast 3G, though. What people complain about is reliability and dropped calls. The good news there, though, is that AT&T’s reliability was above 90% in all but three cities… where Verizon’s reliability was ranked below 90% in all thirteen cities, and below 80% in eight of those cities.

Looking at PC World’s data, in fact, it seems that San Francisco is the biggest problem spot in AT&T’s network, with only a 55% reliability rating… which, given how many tech journalists are centered there, may well explain why we hear so much about AT&T’s woeful 3G service.

Is AT&T’s 3G service spotty? Oh, absolutely, especially given how many iPhones they sell. Even so, though, it seems like the overall complaints about AT&T’s 3G service may be being unfairly amplified.

DON'T MISS
AT&T’s latest 3G ad decapitates Luke Wilson

What do you think? Where do you live? How would you rank your iPhone’s 3G service?

[via Apple Insider]

15 comments »

About the author

John BrownleeJohn Brownlee is news editor here at Cult of Mac, and has also written about a lot of things for a lot of different places, including Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, AMC, Geek and the Consumerist. He lives in Cambridge with his charming inamorata and a tiny budgerigar punningly christened after Nabokov's most famous pervert. You can follow him here on Twitter.

(sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)| Read more posts by .

Posted in iPhone, News |

  • IcyFog

    Well Verizon burned me recently. So AT&T … here I come.

  • http://www.fort90.com/journal/ fort90

    I must admit, my 3G service has noticeably improved over the past couple of weeks. But at the same time, the quality of my voice calls have gone from piss poor to bottom of the barrel.

  • John from Cinnaminson

    In the Philadelphia market, my iPhone 3GS drops calls continuously, still – maybe slightly less than it used to. While I’m no fan of Verizon, my call quality was excellent and dropped calls were very rare. It’s just something I’ve come to expect on my iPhone, and put up with it because of the overall awesome-ness of the device. I really have a hard time squaring my experience with this report.

  • j

    “Looking at PC World’s data, in fact, it seems that San Francisco is the biggest problem spot in AT&T’s network, with only a 55% reliability rating… which, given how many tech journalists are centered there, may well explain why we hear so much about AT&T’s woeful 3G service.”

    Good point.

    I don’t live in the US. But it was quite obvious that AT&T was serious about improving there network. And unless everything they said about the massive investments and resources dedicated to improving the network was a lie, it seems just a matter of time before results similar to the ones presented should show up.

    J.

  • http://www.kevr1990.com Kev Robinson

    Not sure about the US, but in the UK the cities are rarely problematic. Get out of the cities and you are lucky to see that little 3G pop up in the corner at all.

  • Tate

    I live in Northern Michigan, and Verizon’s service sucks up here, they talk and show how much service they get (which is false) and I didn’t even have full bars in the store! So I jumped ship and switched to AT&T and I love it. I rarely get dropped calls and I always compare siganl strength with my friends on Verizon and I get better service than they do! Even on the back roads! They say they have 3G though… But it’s pretty hard to get 3G when you don’t even have service… Verizon was awful. I love AT&T and my iPhone.

  • Peter

    My coverage increased when I switched to AT&T from Verizon. I live in Central MA about 60miles from Boston. I work in Worcester and when I put internet radio on for my commute home I’d lose the signal half way home never to get it back with Verizon. With AT&T it buffers once about three minutes from home and resumes playing.

    At work too, I get more of a signal in my work area (a full five bars) vs. Verizon when I rarely got over two bars, mostly the tiniest bar available.

  • Keith

    95% reliability in NYC? That is BS. I made two trips to Manhattan last year and both times data service was so slow it was unusable.

  • Matt

    hey keith did you not read the post. at&t has improved their network as compared to how it was last year when i came in last. so obviously you haven’t been there recently, and it’s quite obvious you don’t really know how to read either.

  • AJ

    I live in Cleveland, OH and I always get great coverage; moslty 5 bars!!! At school which is in a suburb 30min outside of the city it’s still great coverage. I also work in a mall where I usually get 3-5 bars during busy hours & my co-worker who has “BIG-RED” Aka, verizon usually has 1-2 bars on her blackberry storm which she hates. And btw she always wants to use my phone to browse the web b/c big red sucks with data speeds!!
    But the only problem I’ve heard around here with AT&T is at my moms job. She works in a basement inside a hospital, but neither her with AT&T, nor her colleagues with sprint, tmobile, and of course VERIZON gets coverage!!

  • TG

    Your speed: 1131.542 Kbps
    Your latency: 1.468 seconds
    Transfered 1MB in 7.07 seconds

    Source: http://www.mobilespeedtest.com

    I have tested AT&T’s 3G speeds with my own phone using the link above. I did the test during different times of the day and the lowest speed resulted 859 Kbps and the highest was 1321 Kbps. My location (SE Michigan) wasnt listed but my results seem to match the data pc world published

  • Joshua

    I live in San Fancisco, and can tell you with no reservation that AT&T’s 3g service is terrible. Functionally unusable! Cancelling my 3g modem service this month and going to either Verizon or Sprint.

  • Eric

    Thanks, TG, for that link:
    Source: http://www.mobilespeedtest.com

    I just tested my Verizon 3G on my laptop against my iPhone 3G

    Verizon wireless USB ‘card’ (that I got about a year and a half ago):
    Your speed: 509.23 Kbps
    Your latency: 0.556 seconds
    Transferred 1000 KB in 15.71 seconds

    and

    then, seconds later,

    on my iPhone 3GS, that I got this last December:

    speed: 1183.432 Kbps
    latency: .42 seconds
    Transferred 1000 KB in 6.76 seconds

    Does anyone else use the Wireless Card from Verizon? There might be a newer card that might speed this up. Comparing a 3G card against a 3GS phone might not be fair, since the 3GS seems to be a newer technology.

    Anyway, that’s what I got for speeds.

  • Eric

    By the way, I guess I ought to mention where I’m at.
    Layton, Utah. About 25 miles north of Salt Lake City.

    Just tested again: wow. Wide swing.

    Verizon: 656 kbps
    AT&T 3GS: 795 kbps

  • http://none Louie

    1559 kb/sec Davenport, IA on ATT