Poor network experience fault of iPhone, not AT&T?

It has always been AT&T taking blame for the poor call quality on the Apple iPhone. Dropped calls, no signal, slow data speeds-it had been assumed that it was the network holding back the iPhone, not the other way around. This made a strong case for a Verizon branded iPhone so that the vastly superior iPhone quality could thrive under a good network connection. But suppose the basic assumption was wrong. According to a story in the N.Y. Times, it is actually the fault of the iPhone why the network connection has been picked by the device's owners as the worst part of owning the phone. The story quotes several wireless firms as saying that the AT&T pipeline is actually superior to Verizon's network. This is the cellphone world's version of a second gun in the Grassy Knoll. In other words, what has been passed around so many times that it has seemingly become fact, appears to be debunked and a new story could be ready to get passed around.

Global Wireless Solutions is one of the companies listed in the story. After placing more than 3 million calls this year, concluding more than 2 million wireless data sessions and covering 3 million miles of asphalt, the company concludes that AT&T's data throughput is 40 to 50 percent higher than the competition which includes Big Red. Conducting 4.7 million tests on smartphones for the top 4 U.S. carriers (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile). a company called Root Wireless went to 7 major metropolitan areas and concluded that AT&T had faster download speeds than Verizon did and also had 75% or more of it's signal strength more often than Big Red had. These findings seem to go against the results recently published in Consumer Reports where Verizon was named the best carrier and AT&T was at the bottom in fourth place. The reason for the difference could be that Root Wireless' software will not run in the background on the iPhone which means other smartphones had to be tested besides Apple's touchscreen handset. You don't have to be a member of Mensa to understand that if AT&T's coverage improves that much when the iPhone is excluded, perhaps the problem is with the device-not the network.

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source: N.Y.Times via BGR