PCWorld magazine did a multi-city comparison test on 3G and 4G data speeds: http://www.pcworld.com/article/253808/3g_and_4g_wireless_speed_showdown_which_networks_are_fastest.h.... Bottom line:
"• AT&T's new LTE network turned in the fastest download speeds of any 4G service. Its 3G service was very competitive, too--and those two results help make a strong case for AT&T dual-mode 3G/4G phones. . . .
"• Verizon makes 4G service available in many more locations than other providers do, and its 4G upload speeds are top-of-the-line, but its 4G download speeds don't match AT&T's. And Verizon's 3G speeds are not improving much, especially when compared to the competition."
If you read into the article, Verizon, not surprisingly, disputes the results, but the magazine stands firm by its findings. It also finds that when you have AT&T 4G and it has to drop back to 3G, the drop-off in speed is not as drastic as VZW's.
This is not meant as a slam on Verizon. The trade-off between having the fastest service and having any service at all is unfortunate, but that's how things stand, and my wife and I switched to Verizon in order to get coverage in places where AT&T is not available. Verizon's 4G is still amazingly fast (as PCWorld acknowledges) and it is, if not everywhere, at least in a lot more wheres.
I'd be interested in seeing how many 4g devices are actually using at&t's network. I'd bet Verizon's is more heavily saturated. No secret that at&t and tmobile have faster 3G speeds due to the technology used. They should've tested rural areas too.
Agreed, PJNC284.
I'm most definitely NOT a VZW employee. If a post answered your question, please mark it as the answer.
Good point about the saturation, as the magazine acknowledges on another page: "Because the AT&T network is so new, it is not being used by a very large number of people. Its speeds, which routinely clock in at up to 20 Mbps, will likely cool off somewhat over the next year as LTE subscriber numbers climb." http://www.techhive.com/article/2000094/infographic-4g-lte-speeds-verizon-vs-atandt.html.
I definitely agree about rural areas. One reason we switched from AT&T to Verizon is that AT&T didn't cover our place in the mountains, but VZW does. I haven't tested the data coverage there yet, but at least we can make phone calls.
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