“Verizon Wireless remains America’s fastest mobile network by a nose in our closest Fastest Mobile Networks race ever,” Sascha Segan reports for PC Magazine. “In our tests across the US, Verizon offered the most reliable and consistent high-speed network overall, but split individual wins for 36 cities and rural regions three ways with AT&T and T-Mobile—the first time we’ve seen that kind of an even divide.”
“It’s clear that all three carriers are pushing hard to improve their networks. Depending on where you live, they’re all great choices,” Segan reports. “While Verizon is the fastest mobile network overall, AT&T has the fastest average download speeds in the nation, and T-Mobile can cost less than Verizon while offering very close to the same performance.”
“AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon all offer strong performance this year, but they don’t each offer strong performance everywhere,” Segan reports. ” For example, AT&T is weak in New York City but strong in Indianapolis, while T-Mobile is the other way around. So it’s important to check our individual city pages if you’re making a carrier choice.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: And Sprint brings up the rear.
Different carriers are better in different areas. Where I am, I get great AT&T signals. When I travel west, AT&T starts to suck.
I wish my phone would just grab the strongest signal no matter which carrier it belongs to. Yes, I could switch to something like what walmart offers so I could do that. But I have a good price with my family plan at AT&T and I still get my ex-wifes corporate discount with AT&T even though she switch to T-Mobile.
When driving in the boonies I turn my iPad Pro’s mobile hot spot on and share it with my AT&T iPhone 7 which has wifi calling enabled. That way I am covered even if the AT&T network sucks locally.
One of the reasons Verizon bought Alltel years ago was that they had exceptional coverage in many parts of rural America.
I think what you described is called ‘roaming.’
Yeah, even though I switched to Sprint, it is definitely slower than the others, but then again, my bill is much cheaper. I guess that is the trade off. I can live with being a little slower, cause so many wifi connections are out there now.
T-Mobile works great here in Dallas as long as you’re outdoors. However, once you go inside of any office or retail building, your signal will die very quickly. That’s why this test is quite flawed as it doesn’t seem to take that into account.
There is a T-Mobile void around my mom’s house in SW Virginia. It is sometimes possible to send a text message. A few times, I even managed a voice connection for a minute or two. AT&T signal strength is a bit better and Verizon is the best at mom’s house.
Our first carrier back in the mid-1990s in Houston was Sprint. Great sound, but we quickly discovered that our home was in a partial void. Some parts of the house enabled calls, others didn’t. And, if you moved around, you would most likely drop the call.
For the people who champion competition as the holy grail of making things better, I submit that competition only seems like a good solution because it takes advantage of certain aspects of the human psyche. If human beings were better at cooperation and sharing, then almost everyone would be far better off than in the competitive free enterprise model. Our system of government would be much more efficient and society could revector trillions of dollars away from military/defense, judicial/penitentiary system, and other non-productive areas into the betterment of society. Free enterprise is not something to be worshipped…it is simply the lesser of evils in terms of human economic systems. The free enterprise system leverages individual self-interest to achieve some degree of benefit to society. But it also breeds excessive greed and corruption and wastefulness with short term profits taking precedence over long term consequences. For example…climate change and air/soil/water pollution.
For being the supposed most advanced nation on earth, the US sucks donkey balls when it comes to Internet speeds. It’s pretty damn pathetic.
The problem: The outright REFUSAL of mobile network companies to invest in infrastructure. This is EXACTLY the same problem the USA has with Internet service providers.
The philosophy: SCOUR out all possible value with the LOWEST possible expenditure. It’s an extension of ‘Screw Thy Customer’.
Therefore, the USA continues to FALL BEHIND in technology infrastructure.
Example: Study the history of real 4G technology and wonder why it has never been rolled out across the USA. I’m talking about WiMAX and LTE Advanced. Where are they? Apple supports LTE Advanced in their iPhones. But where can you actually use it inside the USA?
∑ = Deplorable. It points out why corporatocracy equates to self-destruction.
Meanwhile: Faerie tale stories about real 5G happening in something shorter than a factor of YEARS. Wool Pulled Over Eyes.
The usual newbie resources for understanding the problems:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4G
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G
Verizon Wireless I have not used, but know it is the fastest mobile network in the United States. I have seen in the articles, they compliment a lot about this mobile network.