httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd7taHnHzcg
Jeff from iDownloadBlog is one of the lucky few to have not one, but three iPhone 4S’s running on all three US carriers.
The above video demonstrates the speed differences between AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint on the iPhone 4S. As you can tell, Sprint is painfully slow while AT&T and Verizon seem to have very similar speeds.
Apple touts the iPhone 4S as having HSDPA “4G” speeds on AT&T, but many have found that data speeds on AT&T are barely faster than Verizon’s network.
Also, if you can’t activate your 4S today, you’re not alone. AT&T specifically has been falling apart under the crushing weight of the 200,000 pre-orders that were delivered for its network today.
Alex Heath is a journalist who works for Tech Insider. He’s the former co-host of The CultCast. He has been quoted by the likes of the BBC, KRON 4 News, and books like “ICONIC: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation.” He lives in Lexington, Kentucky. If you want to pitch a story, share a tip, or just get in touch, additional contact information is available on his personal site. Follow him on Twitter.
45 responses to “iPhone 4S Data Speeds on AT&T, Verizon, Sprint Compared [Video]”
Maybe today isn’t the best day to be testing data speeds, considering AT&T can’t even activate some phones. I’d like to see this test redone when there isn’t a massive surge on the networks.
ATT activated my phone in their store without a hitch at all
The Major Difference man… But AT & T is Busy today so ok for that
http://www.iphoneleaks.net/2011/10/do...
Great work
http://www.iphoneleaks.net/201…
Those speed tests seem VERY wrong
verizon had 4 bars and att had only 3… not a real good comparison. also as someone has already pointed out, att towers are under more stress today than the other two just because the sheer number of subscribers. try again.
If the US is anything like Canada and Europe, the various companies share their towers with each other so a test like this doesn’t prove anything. You would have to do this over and over in multiple locations to get any useable data. This is really just an advertisement for that guys blog.
This article is useless… First of all, having 3 iPhones next to each other like that could cause interference which would affect the test results. Secondly the reviewer doesn’t state what city he’s in…. I’m sure data speeds are much better in the bigger metro markets.. And lastly of course, today is the worst day to do it. My AT&T speeds with my iPhone 4 are 304ms 1.45mb down 1.08mb up in San Diego.
Those speed test are boring…
AT&T DONT HAVE 4G EVEN THEY LOWER THE CRITERIA FOR 4G SPECIFICATION.
I ASKED MY COUSIN WHO IS ENGINEER FOR AT&T FOR 5 YEARS AND HE TOLD ME THAT THEY HAVE ONLY 14.4MBPS AT SOME CITIES THEN MOST OTHER CITIES ARE ONLY USING 7.2MBPS…
THAT’S WHY THEY WANT TO BUY TMOBILE AS THEY HAVE REAL 42MBPS TOWERS WITH ENOUGH SERVER.
WE TESTED HTC AMAZE AND SAMSUNG GALAXY S2 IN HOUSTON AND WE AVERAGE AT 18MBPS AND SOMETIMES WE REACH 26MBPS IN SPEEDTEST.
FOR LATE MONTHS OF 2011, THOSE SPEED ARE JURASSIC…
But apple itards will still say iphone4s is the best…
ONE DAY I TAKE ENGLISH CLASS AND LEARN MAKE INTERNET POSTS SUCCESSFULLY
What on earth are those slow speeds on 3G…. is this reall USA, I’m getting 4 mbps on 3G here in India (bombaY)…. I thot u guys have 14 & 20 mbps….
I hope downloads get better than that for those networks. In Sydney at home I get 7.83Mbps down / 3.41Mbps
The results for AT&T and Verizon are pretty much right on target with what I see in real life…I travel a lot; I have a Verizon iPhone 4 and an AT&T iPad (not the 2)…I compare 3G speeds between the two routinely. Verizon and AT&T are almost always equal in download speed, with the edge going to Verizon; AT&T routinely smokes Verizon on upload. I really don’t care about theoretical network speeds…in real life, I more consistent service with Verizon, but don’t feel hampered by AT&T at all…I don’t know about Sprint these days.
That’s exactly the point. AT&T will get LESS bars than Verizon MOST of the time. So even if AT&T can pull a little faster speed, so what? If you can’t get reception from it’s cheap network you won’t even be able to access the stupid speed. Overloaded network or not. Future speed tests will likely yield similar results, as they ALL have in the past.
That’s exactly the point. AT&T will get LESS bars than Verizon MOST of the time. So even if AT&T can pull a little faster speed, so what? If you can’t get reception from it’s cheap network you won’t even be able to access the stupid speed. Overloaded network or not. Future speed tests will likely yield similar results, as they ALL have in the past.
On the SpeedTest, the AT&T phone went to a server in Lexington, KY. The other two used a server in Chicago. So, obviously, the results would differ.
Also, I just ran SpeedTest on the Sprint iPhone 4S and got 23.29Mbps Down and 6.10Mbps up and 23ms ping. If I could upload a pic, I would. Instead, here’s a URL to the result:
http://worml.me/MQ73RFad
Updated Sprint results from San Jose, CA. ETA: These results are with 3 bars.
98ms ping, 0.06Mbps down, 0.14Mbps up.
A couple minutes later:
273ms ping, 0.17Mbps down, 0.01Mbps up
So yeah, inconsistent but consistently crappy :-)
cheap network? cheap that lets you voice and data at the same time? that cheap?? sorry… can verizon do that? no. i have full bars 9 outta 10 times i look at my iphone. also, ive never heard of somebody saying speed is stupid. say the results are the same… id still rather sacrifice a tiny bit of “stupid speed” for more flexibility in my multitasking.
you clearly have some anger issues kid. go see a therapist.
copy & paste much?
wait a minute… i just watched the end of the video. AT&T was faster on speedtest… even with more latency. i think you should not talk anymore.
Sprint results from San Jose, CA with 5 bars:
92ms ping, 0.95Mbps down, 0.30Mbps up.
I thought you might be interested in this data.
These are the 20 tests I have run from my AT&T 64gb iphone 4s in the past couple of days… most of them I just ran at the same period of time to various servers around the southeast from my office here in Tampa. The speed averages should be fairly accurate for real world results.
All connection speeds are in Mbps:
Date ConnTypeDown UpPing ServerName
10/19/2011 12:19Cell1.881.16108Houston, TX
10/19/2011 12:18Cell2.611.07270Kingston
10/19/2011 12:17Cell1.941.03107Lexington, KY
10/19/2011 12:16Cell1.951.0898Asheville, NC
10/19/2011 12:15Cell2.611.17239New Orleans, LA
10/19/2011 12:14Cell1.920.6178Atlanta, GA
10/19/2011 12:14Cell2.461.14120Miami, FL
10/19/2011 12:13Cell0.971.18455Jacksonville, FL
10/19/2011 12:12Cell2.80189Macclenny, FL
10/19/2011 12:11Cell2.671.2209Naples, FL
10/19/2011 12:11Cell2.011.19218Cocoa, FL
10/19/2011 12:10Cell1.590.51101Fort Myers, FL
10/19/2011 12:09Cell0.061.04255Tampa, FL
10/18/2011 10:11Cell1.741.2110Miami, FL
10/18/2011 10:10Cell3.591.06249Tampa, FL
10/18/2011 10:08Wifi13.232.3576Tampa, FL
10/18/2011 10:08Wifi0.62.1246Fort Myers, FL
10/18/2011 10:06Cell1.011.07231Tampa, FL
10/18/2011 10:05Cell1.541.21108Miami, FL
10/17/2011 16:23Cell2.991.07258Tampa, FL
My results do seem to be considerably higher than most others I’m seeing posted – this might be due to HSPA+ but I’m not sure how to tell if HSPA+ is actually working in this specific area. There is no change of indicator on the phone between 3G and HSPA+ to my knowledge.
The number of bars on your phone does not necessarily indicate a bad connection to the network or that your data speeds will be slower as a result. It’s a relative gauge that is different between carriers and cannot be used in a comparison test at all. Unless you have NO connection in which case the test would be pointless anyway. Verizon uses a totally different technology than AT&T also, CDMA vs. GSM, so the bars you see are measured from different signal types from the start – apples and oranges my friend.
The Sprint slowness may be software related according to an article today in electronista. I’d post the URL but, based on past experience with Cult of Mac, posts containing URLs are sent to slash dev slash null.
sorry but i have sprint and it is fast!!! it takes maybe 2 seconds to load a screen!!!!!!!! ummm maybe because sprint is in the middle?? how a bout you switch it up….