“Third-generation wireless technology, or 3G, started being rolled out in about 2001, and offers a wide range of services (from music downloads to mobile GPS) and greater efficiency than previous standards. In the U.S., three providers offer 3G service: AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint. The fourth nationwide carrier, T-Mobile, says it will roll out its 3G network starting later this year,” Brian Nadel reports for Computerworld.
“Although 3G can be accessed using many cell phones, road warriors who need to get serious work done will likely want to use their laptops,” Nadel reports. “To gauge the speed and reliability of these three wireless data networks, I used my ThinkPad X300 to collect nearly 500 data points at eight different places in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, within a 50-mile radius of midtown Manhattan’s urban canyons,.”
“I timed how long it took to establish a connection with each network, followed by speed tests. Using Alken’s bandwidth meter, I was able to gauge download and upload speeds as well as how long it took to load that vendor’s home page,” Nadel reports. “All speed readings — connection time, the Alken speed tests and page loading times — were repeated five times and averaged.”
“AT&T’s network left its competitors in the digital dust, with average download speeds of 755Kbit/sec. and average upload speeds of 484Kbit/sec. The peak download speed was 1.6Mbit/sec. It connected in just 3.0 seconds and loaded the test Web page in 0.228 seconds,” Nadel reports.
“The slowest of the three cellular data networks, the Sprint network delivered on average 494Kbit/sec. download speeds to my notebook. That’s roughly a third slower than AT&T’s network. Its average upload speed was 294Kbit/sec. and the network’s top speed was 1.2Mbit/sec. It connected in 3.7 seconds,” Nadel reports. “Verizon’s BroadBand Connect network averaged 592Kbit/sec. for downloads and upload 232Kbit/sec. for uploads. Peak speed was 1.3Mbit/sec. On the downside, it took a relatively pokey 5.6 seconds to connect.”
Much, much more in the full article here.
Whoo hoo! First post
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odd…. my palm treo with sprint kills the web browsing speed on my at&t;blackberry….
your milage may vary
in fact, HIS milage may vary if he moves 10 feet to the left.
what a useless test……
500 data points, 8 different spots around NYC, 5 tests per spot, per device. I would say, this is a decent test. One could argue, 50 different spots would better neutralise any advantages one network might have over another in a particular random spot, but if trends were consisted across these spots, it would be difficult to see how the results could be any different with a larger sample base.
Your BlackBerry has a really, really crappy browser, which in my experience was always the biggest bottleneck on the device (and not the network speed). Palm is a real computer, with real software, and a Treo probably has more efficient browser (not that any of them are able to hold a candle to the Safari on the iPhone).
I use my Sprint Treo as a wireless modem from time to time. The speed is okay, so long as you don’t expect to use it for iTunes or bit-torrent downloads.
Isn’t ATT’s 3G network rather new compared to the others? If so, might it be that they have less utilization since the existing customer base hasn’t saturated it yet and newer 3G subscribers haven’t migrated to it yet?
Ironic seeing as Sprint claims to have the fastest data speeds…
Then again I’m sure they also claim to have impeccable customer service.
I doubt they’d say ‘impeccable service’, not even in their marketing. These guys are always careful to say ‘Best customer service according to…’ then some survey, or some market research company, or Consumer Report, JDPower, or whoever picked them in a specific category over their competitor (for example, best customer service for data plans $40 or over). When you are the best, that only means you have edged out your competition; it still doesn’t say anything about the absolute quality of your service.
There are so many market research companies, surveys and studies, almost any company can claim to be the best and back it up with scores from some of these surveys. Car makers are best example – with so many car magazines, they strategically divide their ‘Best of…’ awards among the car makers, so that every car maker can claim the best in class for every one of their models.
We have no way of finding who is really the best other than trying for ourselves, as much as it can be done…
Spent the weekend on an island in N.H. – the iPhones had web access while our iBook did not. 🙁
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Played Bridge with Real People instead.
This is like hearing that turtle is faster than the sloth which is faster than the snail.
I’m so not thrilled.
@Predrag
What YOU said.
@Predrag
I tethered the blackberry to a laptop to get internet and you could tell a huge difference so… it’s not just from having a shitty browser. I must say atleast my blackberry doesn’t freeze and crash like the palm treo’s I’ve had. from the 600 to the 755 my blackberry, I cant stand so I’ll be getting the new iphone and putting it on the company plan and using the blackberry as a backup for someone else. reception kinda sucks on it compared to my friends iphone. Cant wait to finally have a damn cool phone that works.
@ Predrag
Mention a review in Consumer Reports in your advertising, and Consumer Reports will sue you.
That’s why you more often see something like “according to a major consumer magazine….”
And wait to see the speeds once their network is loaded with users….this means nothing right now.
Mention a review in Consumer Reports in your advertising, and Consumer Reports will sue you.
How can that be? If they reviewed your product in their magazine, how in the world can they sue you for summarizing their results? That’s ridiculous!
“Isn’t ATT’s 3G network rather new compared to the others? If so, might it be that they have less utilization since the existing customer base hasn’t saturated it yet and newer 3G subscribers haven’t migrated to it yet?”
No, it’s only iPhone users who believe AT&T;doesn’t have a 3G network. The rest of us have been using it for years.
Wait till all those iPhones get on the network…
“Wait till all those iPhones get on the network…”
There are already tens of millions of 3G subscribers on AT&Ts;network. A few million iPhone users won’t make much difference.
To alansky:
From ConsumerReports.org:
“CONSUMERS UNION
NO COMMERCIAL USE POLICY”
“We accept no advertising and we are not beholden to any commercial interest. Our income is derived from the sale of Consumer Reports and other publications and information services, and from noncommercial contributions, grants, and fees. Published information from Consumers Union, including our Ratings and Reports, is intended solely for the benefit of our subscribers and other consumers, in order to help them make informed choices and decisions about consumer products, services, and other consumer matters. Such information may not be used by others in advertising or to promote a company’s product or service. In addition, this policy precludes any commercial use of any of Consumers Union’s published information in any form, or of the names of Consumers Union®, Consumer Reports®, or any other of Consumers Union’s publications or services, without our express written permission. If Consumers Union learns that this policy has been violated, it will take all steps necessary to prevent the misuse of its names or of any of its materials, including legal action where appropriate.”
(http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/aboutus/adviolation/index.htm)
Thanks again to all the iWhiners that bought iPhone 1.0’s with loserG transfer speeds. You have funded the R&D;on my fully featured iPhone 2.0 that I will be buying next month. Don’t forget iWhiners, keep buying them MBA’s. I need a fully featured thin laptop in a year…
just my $0.02