Well, turns out AT&T is not total arse: it is fast in some areas. According to a study by Root Wireless, AT&T has the fastest 3G in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
Of course, to make it plain: Verizon does have more total 3G coverage. How much? Well, you remember the map that started it all. If not, 3G coverage in the US looks like this:
Not to be overly grumpy (as a current AT&T customer), but that map makes the point of having slighty faster coverage a bit meaningless. Especially in areas of hot iPhone usage, when the wireless tubes to tend to clog.
So, game on AT&T, you beat everyone (Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile) at one metric. All I ask is that you stop dropping my calls, or I am going to drop my $120 a month iPhone plan and snag a Droid when my contract expires. According to the survey, Verizon gets 295 Kpbs in Chicago, that is enough for me.
Can you hear me now?
It’s always funny to see the rampant complaints about AT&T because it’s the only usable carrier here (NW Washington). I do live in a 3G area, though, but anyone I know using other cell carriers can barely use their phones without dropped or static-filled connections and are all just waiting for their contract to expire to switch providers.
I, on the other hand, would love to have an Android phone and am whining because AT&T is in love with their iPhone exclusivity and doesn’t have a decent Android option.
Can’t please us all I suppose but AT&T had better pick up the pace in 3G coverage or they’re going to experience your threat becoming real with more than just you.
Around here, AT&T has much (MUCH) better call quality, and we finally got 3G on Thanksgiving. I regularly clock speeds around the 900k and the occasional 1100k on 3G, whereas our Verizon customers tend to max out at 768k. This being said, Verizon’s coverage is more complete; I’ll find a dead zone more often than my Verizon buddies. Of the carriers here, Sprint brought their 3G first, about 2 1/2 years ago, with Verizon only a few months ago, and AT&T for only a couple of weeks now. I have only experienced 4 or 5 dropped calls that I can recall with AT&T’s service over the last three years, while I used to drop one or two a day when I had Verizon. Each carrier seems to prevail in different locations, but I tend to prefer AT&T’s phone selection over that of other companies (except the Palm Pre – I’d buy it over my crummy iPhone 3G S). But, that’s just my opinion.
Nice thing about being in Anchorage, AK with AT&T 3g coverage is we dont’ have the congested network issues other places do. But most people also do think about how Verizon is CDMA and AT&T is GSM which are two different network types thus coverage will be different in some areas. I don’t think it matters how much coverage you tout, dependability and other factors play into the service. I’d rather take a service touting less covered areas but have awesome coverage in them, than a company touting they cover everywhere with not as good actual network coverage. To each their own.
I also agree AT&T needs to start picking up some Android phones – I have a G1 (unlocked being used on a local carrier) and my iPhone with AT&T but enjoy using them both equally. Might be a boost AT&T needs against Verizon at this point.
.. next time I am in North or South Dakota I’ll worry about the lack of 3G coverage.. oh, but then again, for the very very short time (hopefully) I am there, I’ll use EDGE.
Youre a blind sheep for believing TV commercials. When those 2 maps were being compared the ATT 3G map was 2-3 years out of date.