First weekly batch of network speed tests comparing Verizon and AT&T iPhone 4s is in

Ookla, the company behind Speedtest.net was able to include the Verizon iPhone 4 in its weekly data dumps for the first time, and with quite a large sample, AT&T's 3G network turned out more than twice faster in download speeds.

This shouldn't come as a big surprise, considering Verizon's EV-DO Rev. A maxes out at 3Mbits, whereas AT&T has deployed HSPA+ to almost all of its network already, maxing out at 14.4Mbps (in theory), which helps its 3G devices download speeds as well. Plus, the results largely coincide with our own data speed testing on the two iPhone 4s we did recently.

The issue, though, is usually not speed, but coverage and network load, so now that you have excellent smartphone offerings on both carriers, it all depends how well you are covered where you live or travel by one carrier or the other, or whether their cell phone towers are enough to handle the pressure in the city you live in. We are including screenshots of the carriers' own current data coverage maps for reference purposes below.

via GigaOm

AT&T 3G coverage map

Verizon 3G coverage map

19 Comments

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posted on 18 Feb 2011, 05:54 3

1. Darren (unregistered)

The Att map is not their 3G data footprint. I call BS. Phonearena stop using crap articles.

posted on 18 Feb 2011, 08:42 2

3. DHA020204808848 (unregistered)

that is infact at&t's 3G footprint

posted on 18 Feb 2011, 09:03 2

5. narley (Posts: 357; Member since: 14 May 2009)

ya minus all the light blue that makes it seem like theres more than there really is....

if verizon did "future" crap all you would see is red.

LTE will change this anyway, speed on any phone is irrelevant now on 3G... who cares.

posted on 18 Feb 2011, 11:51 1

9. bunnsguy (unregistered)

But according to AT&T all that light blue will in fact be 3G no later than March 31

posted on 18 Feb 2011, 06:14 2

2. SPcamert (Posts: 56; Member since: 06 Feb 2010)

The Map from AT&T is their "data" coverage but not their 3G Mobile Broadband Coverage so technically they're not lying, just not speaking the complete truth.

posted on 18 Feb 2011, 08:52 2

4. sleepyx13 (Posts: 1; Member since: 18 Feb 2011)

come on phonearena how much they paying you guys to discourage people to get the iphone from verizon........ verizon is the most reliable on the iphone i get so much signal faster data on verizon i hate att they data slow their voice sucks.....so people dont believe everything you read

posted on 18 Feb 2011, 09:04 2

6. narley (Posts: 357; Member since: 14 May 2009)

I totally agree.

Name ONE article thats about dropped clls ATT vs VZW instead of speed.

oh wait.... there isnt one.

posted on 18 Feb 2011, 10:08 1

7. Yo (unregistered)

It was actually mentioned in the last article that the call quality was better on vzw and I think there were fewer dropped calls. I don't understand why there are so many AT&T haters out there. Y'all get butthurt everytime there is an "AT&T is slightly better than VZW but by so little its negligible" article posted.
Grow up and be happy on YOUR network.

posted on 18 Feb 2011, 11:07

8. lyle0825 (unregistered)

This article is not about coverage maps. It is an independent statistical sample.
It shows a clear advantage for at&t against Verizon, and the difference in performance is huge, it is an embarrassed especially after all the hype about the magical union between the super iPhone and the super Version network which will save the world

posted on 18 Feb 2011, 12:54

10. calamazoo (unregistered)

true that, and the coverage maps posted clearly show a lot more white spots for the att coverage than verizon's, so no bias - att is faster but coverage areas suck... and that's exactly what is presented, now LTE is a totally different story.

posted on 18 Feb 2011, 16:39 1

11. Hmmm (unregistered)

I thought ATT claimed that the HSPA+ was considered their "4G"?

posted on 18 Feb 2011, 17:02

12. box (unregistered)

This is AT&T's 3G mobile-broadband coverage map. The 3G voice map is much more comprehensive. Mobile broadband means speeds of 7.2 MB/s or greater, which are more than twice the speed of CDMA (Verizon/Sprint/US Cellular)

AT&T, you'll notice, was the last to jump on the "4G" bandwagon: technically it's still 3G, until the true LTE deploys, with theoretical speeds of around 100MB/s, but since the genius ITC decided that Sprint and Verizon (and then T-Mobile) were calling their non-CDMA LTE "4G", to declare it to be "4G". HSPA+, from both AT&T & T-Mobile is faster than the LTE from Verizon & Sprint, with the handsets being the biggest limitation - speeds of up to 21MB/s depending on model - versus the approximately 17MB/s on Verizon's/Sprint's networks.

I'm not biased towards verizon or AT&T (I'm a T-Mobile customer) but I gotta call B.S on the map issue

posted on 19 Feb 2011, 11:34 1

13. tragichero (Posts: 163; Member since: 07 Jan 2011)

sprint is wimax... and t-mobile claimed they had 4g on HSPA+ before verizon released LTE on mobile-broadband from thier cdma network. The only ones claiming to have 4g that dont is att and t-mobile. get your facts straight!

posted on 19 Feb 2011, 11:36

14. tragichero (Posts: 163; Member since: 07 Jan 2011)

that was in responce to box.... obviously

posted on 24 Feb 2011, 15:39

15. at&t_rep (unregistered)

Well to al of you verizon fan boys or girls. Apple's iPhone 4 on at&t is way fastest then Big Red. Not even three months ago alot of people got canned for telling the truth about the maps. If you dont know about this is states (" We was told by higher up's to move the coverge area on our maps past or same as other carriers. So of ther areas we dont cover people dont live near.") Verizon stated those jobs was change to other branches of the network.

at&t iPhone drops call's yes. All phone co's do. I never had a call droped trying to call the police tho.

Network speeds everyone I work with has sprint or t-mobile the place I work next to has verizon we do test every month t-mobile crushes there speeds and my phone beat a driod x when that person was on wi-fi.

Verizon is over priced and there maps are streched out. oOo almost forgot slow.

posted on 24 Feb 2011, 15:43

16. 4G_Sprint (unregistered)

Not to say Verizon Wireless has the iPhone due from alot of tears and court cost. Pay more to have less.

posted on 24 Feb 2011, 15:47

17. gameover (unregistered)

I was reading HSPA+ the for at&t is 3G okay thats why most of big red LTE keep up with it so is that 3G? Just wait at&t LTE is going to be 4X fast then is already HSPA+!

posted on 24 Feb 2011, 15:55

18. vzw_rep (unregistered)

Off the rec: The people losing there job is dead on dont know how you found out about? who ever told you tell them to watch out who they talk to. Far as our map is rated even if we had real test would be greater then sprint, att or t-mobile. Far as faster att get the top spot till we get full LTE.