AT&T has the nation's fastest wireless network according to PC Magazine
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This article contains unofficial information.
Nationally, AT&T was first followed by T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint 3G. In the Northeast, the HSPA+ rollout by T-Mobile in New York City helped the carrier grab the top spot in the region, followed by AT&T, Sprint 3G and Verizon. AT&T took the title in the Southeast with T-Mobile in second and Verizon and Sprint 3G tied for third. In the Central, it was more of the same with AT&T beating out T-Mobile as Verizon and Sprint 3G again tied for third. Finally, out West, AT&T took the top spot followed by Verizon with Sprint 3G third and T-Mobile last. If you're wondering where Sprint 4G is, while Cricket and WiMax did get tested in the small areas that they currently service, both did not cover enough area to be included in the final rankings of each region.
source: PCMagazine
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38 Comments
1. DonkeyPunched posted on 20 Oct 2010, 01:46 0 0
Hm, I wanna see those Sprint 4G speeds. I keep hearing all this speculation between T-Mobile HSPA+ & Sprint 4G... :\ I wanna know which is faster so I can choose a service I wanna stick with in the month of June/July.
2. Schmao posted on 04 Jun 2010, 06:25 0 0
Right now, T-mobile HSPA+ (max 21) speeds are faster than Sprint 4G (max 11)
4. DonLouie posted on 04 Jun 2010, 08:29 0 0
Max speed with WiMax is 14 while average is 3 - 8 but + is closer to current 3G. Looking at the graph shows the GSM carriers are faster but not consistent as CDMA.
8. spoonb1 posted on 04 Jun 2010, 10:37 0 0
funny how everyone in the media and dumb "consumers" are told that 4g is better and faster when 3g is still capable of upwards of 24mbps speeds, and current so called 4g is only theoretically at 11.... lol stupid media... its all the iphone 3g's fault for bringing the technology name into the equation.. lol
9. clevername posted on 04 Jun 2010, 10:39 0 0
@DonLouie I wouldn't be so quick to say CDMA carriers are more consistent. In every region tmobile beats VZW in consistency, except one and VZW only wins by a factor of .02. Also in 2 of four regions AT&T beats verizon, and the other 2 verizon beats AT&T. I'd call it a draw, now sprint does have better consisentcy than all three in all regions Except one, which AT&T has that claim. Point is being CDMA is not indicative of the carriers consistency. Not if the CDMA carriers have such a gap in consistency.
18. jenna_23 posted on 04 Jun 2010, 13:15 0 0
yes i agree right now t-mobile hspa 21mbps beats sprints 4G network in terms of coverage and speed cuz believe it or not t-mobile has hspa+ in waaaay more places than wimax.. . sprints 4G network is only available in a few places.. . t-mobiles 3G hspa is available on more markets ..
30. DonLouie posted on 04 Jun 2010, 16:10 0 0
Way more when concerning GSM is an exagerration to say the least.
31. networkdood posted on 04 Jun 2010, 16:34 0 0
3G is capable of 100 mpbs speeds - LTE is not true 3G as it is considered 3.9 3G
3. Richcop posted on 04 Jun 2010, 07:34 0 0
Just taking a quick glance at this tells me that Sprint 3G and Cricket have the best consistancy rates of data with T-Mobile next. Sprint was in the 90's in all four tests. AT&T was in the 70's in one of the tests. Just my 2 cents.
5. wreh3 posted on 04 Jun 2010, 08:30 0 0
PC magazine must have the worst network analysts for them to think that at&t has the fastest wireless network; were they being bribed; or it's a deal for them to keep their jobs
6. BlackberryUser posted on 04 Jun 2010, 09:27 0 0
They all got unlimited data plans in exchange for the article, jk...
19. jenna_23 posted on 04 Jun 2010, 13:19 0 0
i totally agree with u PC magazine must have the worst network analysts for them to think at&t is the fastest network in the US. at&t is actually the worst when it comes to everything call fails, dropped calls , slow 3G .. i had at&t before and i think it was ridiculous how i would still get call failed with 5 bars of 3G now in the other hand t-mobile rarely drops the call even when i have 1 bar of service . so yea go figure ...
33. networkdood posted on 04 Jun 2010, 16:36 0 0
ok, read the article and the charts - we are only dealing data speeds - voice calls are a different matter and some point no one will care as all voice will go VOIP.
7. narley posted on 04 Jun 2010, 10:00 0 0
AT&T is techinically faster. But when actually uploading/downloading its by less than a single second so you wouldnt really notice a difference (not to mention Verizon phones now have a lot better processors in their phones). So that's why they're allowed to claim it on commercials without VZW suing their @$$.
12. spoonb1 posted on 04 Jun 2010, 11:30 0 0
oh and i suppose that the actual network speed has nothing to do with it... but since you don't know ... att UMTS (3G) is running 3.6mbps(average speeds 1.5 to 2.2mbps) and soon to be 7.2mpbs is far faster than VZW EVDO running 600 Kbps to 1.4 Mbps... so with att even the average speeds--not talking max speeds or anything-- are up to 3 times faster than vzw... thats part of why apple chose att and the other is the simultaneous voice and data. none of which has anything to do with better processors in phones.... just sayin
14. narley posted on 04 Jun 2010, 12:42 0 0
oh really? and how fast will VZW LTE be? and hmmm... you dont know. and how much load is on the network when its running on that? 12%? hmmmm another stat that you dont know do you..... maybe you should also learn about all the class action lawsuits AT&T has had toward them because their network could never handle what they claim. hence tiered data thats not unlimited for your treasured iphone and ipad... so once again.... owned.
15. narley posted on 04 Jun 2010, 12:48 0 0
and P.S. Apple came to Verizon first smarty, they turned them down. Because they didnt want Apple to own the data plan and part of their monthly access also.... but i'm sure you knew that.
38. Lucas777 posted on 11 Jan 2011, 19:00 0 0
Well smartysmarty if you knew anything, then you would know that they went to cingular first... which is att...
17. jenna_23 posted on 04 Jun 2010, 13:12 0 0
t-mobile is technically muuuuuuuch faster than at&t because its running at 21 mbps which if u ask me its much faster than at&t's 7.2 mbps so on t-mobile u really do see a difference when downloading stuff.
20. DOGIEFRESH posted on 04 Jun 2010, 13:44 0 0
Dude you should file a lawsuit against SLOW-RIZON CEO, he said apple never went to them for the first iphone, get over with that urban legend fanboy....!!!
22. narley posted on 04 Jun 2010, 14:50 0 0
no.. he went to Voda phone.. then entailing VZW along with it. But good try.
24. narley posted on 04 Jun 2010, 14:59 0 0
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/n
ews/2007-01-28-verizon-iphone_x.htm ..if you can read.
35. DOGIEFRESH posted on 05 Jun 2010, 03:31 0 0
That's false first of all Voda partially owns VZW they don't make the desicions, and second why Voda didn't make a deal with apple in Europe then is kinda like nonsense....!!!
36. DOGIEFRESH posted on 05 Jun 2010, 03:40 0 0
Yes i can read and also i read on usatoday that the ipad was imminent for VZW, after that who will believe on those guys...!!!!
10. clevername posted on 04 Jun 2010, 10:46 0 0
I think 4G just needs to be completely out of his equation. For now anyway. It's not up in Enough markets, and it's max speeds haven't fully matured. This is the first set of 4G standards. Wimax as a network technology has the potential for MUCH greater that 11mbs. I'm talking 70 and/or up. Real world speeds would be more like 20-40 in that case at best but it's still far superior. Same with LTE When it rolls out. Speeds will probably initialy be around 10-20mbs. Mayb 30. But LTE has a max theoretical of 120+mbs. Real world speeds of 70+. luckily we see the final evolution of 3G speeds so we can fairly test them, but it just wouldn't be fair to test an evolving and new network.
11. Mateo8326 posted on 04 Jun 2010, 11:09 0 0
we all knew ATT had the fastest 3g network we knew that for years so stop hating. yall can down ATT for there lack of coverage but with speed they are on top.
16. jenna_23 posted on 04 Jun 2010, 13:10 0 0
im not hating on at&t but t-mobile now has the fastest network in america running at 21mbps u should know that, its even faster than sprints 4G sorry but its the truth .. the truth hurts dont it?
23. omarc26 posted on 04 Jun 2010, 14:59 0 0
i agree t-mobile is muuuuuuuuuch faster than gayt&t
34. CRICKETownz posted on 04 Jun 2010, 22:24 0 0
Since when is #2 on top? Just a question... Let AT&T have their little measly wins...anything to take the focus off how they drop the ball in other critical categories.
21. BrokenImaege posted on 04 Jun 2010, 14:19 0 0
So what it comes down to is that while AT&T has the fastest 3G network currently when tested. Now was this test taken in actual work environments or closed environments? The reason I ask this is that it doesn't matter how fast your network is if people can't use it. I keep hearing about they are the fastest, and I don't think any carrier disagrees with it, but when your customers can't get those speeds or they keep dropping calls and data service, does it even really matter???? Just asking. :-) I am sure VZW and Sprint could open speeds up to be faster, no problem. But if thier customers couldn't use it due to network overage, would it even matter at that point? Once again, just asking :-)
25. omarc26 posted on 04 Jun 2010, 15:03 0 0
dud at&t drops calls like crazy n there 3G network doesnt work 95% percent of the time.. u said it doesnt matter how fast your network is people cant use it. thats at&t right there people can never use there network because it always fails . in the other hand t-mobile ,verizon,sprint work most of the time not like at&t
27. Mateo8326 posted on 04 Jun 2010, 15:05 0 0
Nobody talking about dropping calls you could of did with out that part and saved it for another topic
28. jenna_23 posted on 04 Jun 2010, 15:10 0 0
yea i agree i had at&t and always had to be relying on wifi cuz there shitty ass 3G network never worked also everyone in my family had at&t and same thing with them they always had to be relying on wifi most of the time because they also had problems connection to there 3G network most of the time
29. artz1986 posted on 04 Jun 2010, 15:29 0 0
If at&t's network was as janky as most shit talkers say, then why has their churn rate remained low? Actually, I think it went down in Q1 of this year. Of course at&t has problems, but besides those major issues in NYC and San Fran, their network isn't as horrible as ppl speculate it to be. I mean, a low churn rate does mean something. Theoretically Tmo does have the fastest speeds in the country, but when you throw in variables, those theoretical speeds do drastically come down, and remember, this test isn't as scientific as is could be...don't take it to heart.
