What Cell Phone Carrier has the Fastest 3G Network
I know you have seen the commercials for all the cell phone companies that say they have the largest, fastest, or most reliable 3G network. With all these claims flying around, which one is actually the fastest or the most reliable.
Everyone knows you can’t believe everything you hear. So when a cell phone carrier tells you they have the fastest 3G network you don’t really believe them. I mean they are the ones that stand to benefit from you believing it so why should you believe them.
I was reading an article on PCworld’s website about an independent company that tested the 3 largest cell carriers in the US, version, Sprint, and AT&T. They tested the three networks in 13 major cities and charted all of their results to see if one network stood out from the rest.
The results are kind of confusing so to prevent me from having to sum up what they said I’ll let you read what they found:
In Novarum's tests for us, Verizon Wireless demonstrated a good mix of speed and reliability. Across more than 20 testing locations in each of the 13 cities we tested, Verizon had an average download speed of 951 kbps. Verizon demonstrated good reliability, too; the network was available at a reasonable and uninterrupted speed in 89.8 percent of our tests.
Sprint's 3G network delivered a solid connection in 90.5 percent of our 13-city tests. Sprint's average download speed of 808 kbps across 13 cities wasn't flashy (at that speed, a 1MB file downloads in 10 seconds), but dependability is an important asset. The Sprint network performed especially well, both in speed and in reliability, in our test cities in the western part of the United States.
The AT&T network's 13-city average download speed in our tests was 812 kbps. Its average upload speed was 660 kbps. Reliability was an issue in our experience of the AT&T system: Our testers were able to make a connection at a reasonable, uninterrupted speed in only 68 percent of their tests.
They go on later to say that AT&T in certain places had the fastest speeds of any location. They also said that Sprint has a very high reliability of its connection. Verizon had an average speed higher than the other two and had almost as good reliability as sprint.
Need less to say testing this sort of thing is nearly impossible. People really want to know how reliable the phone will be in their city. The only real way to do that is to do massive amounts of tests in your city. There are so many variables that can slow the speed of your connecting. Anything from trees to weather to buildings can slow and prevent connection. Cell phones aren’t magic. They have physical limitations and your connection will not always be the same in the same location.
Something else they talked about that I thought was interesting was the fact that the amount of bars your phone shows doesn’t really predict how strong the signal is. The only thing the bars really tell you is if you have a connection at all.
Here is the chart with their results click to enlarge.
