3G and 4G Wireless Speed Showdown: Which Networks Are Fastest? - harrispresucest
Information technology's been a yr since we looked closely at wireless service in the One States, and in the interim that service has changed considerably–by and large in cocksure ways. The industry is midmost of another major technology transition, this metre moving from a 3G world to a 4G uncomparable while trying to grasp the implications, realize the opportunities, and deal with the healthy nisus. Each of this should be good (flush fun!) for consumers, and it could guide to a lot of cool, superfast, reasonably priced devices.
In this yr's canvas, we took snap measurements of wireless service in 13 cities–Battle of Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York City, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.–across the country to get a real-time view of how the 3G-to-4G conversion is progressing, and of which companies are currently delivering on the secure faster speeds.
SLIDESHOW: 3G and 4G Average Speeds, City by City
For inside information about how we conducted our testing, ascertain "Methodology in a Nutshell."
In unspecific, the major wireless carriers appear to be keeping pace with the explosion in demand for mobile data service. The 3G service that virtually of us use nowadays is leastwise atomic number 3 fast equally IT was a year past, even though far more subscribers are tapping the networks with progressively data-hungry devices. And a new generation of much faster 4G radio help is quickly becoming commonplace in the state's more inhabited areas.
"Our research shows that the demand on mobile broadband networks is nearly doubling all year, indeed there is definitely no more board to remain idle" said Dan Hays, U.S. advisory wireless leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). "The results of this year's PCWorld study clearly show that most wireless network operators are continuing to put significantly in their 3G networks, adding capacity to ensure that speeds stay on competitive."
Here are the major findings of our study:
• AT&T's new LTE net turned in the fastest download speeds of any 4G service. Its 3G service was very competitive, too–and those two results help make a strong case for AT&T dual-mode 3G/4G phones.
• T-Mobile's HSPA+ 21 service won in the 3G bracket out of our study, and the company's high-finish HSPA+ 42 service competed fairly well with other providers' 4G service. To boot, T-Peregrine's service plans are more flexible and its prices are lower than those offered by competing carriers.
• Verizon makes 4G help available in many more locations than other providers manage, and its 4G upload speeds are top-of-the-line, but its 4G download speeds don't match AT&T's. And Verizon's 3G speeds are not improving much, especially when compared to the competition.
• Dash was systematically a laggard in our wireless speed derby. The company seems to have virtually obstructed developing its existing 3G and 4G networks while looking for a way to make the transition from its outdated WiMax 4G technology to LTE.
Following page: How AT&ere;T performed.
AT&T Regains the Lead
In the eight cities where we performed testing in some 2011 and 2012, AT&T increased the average download speed of its HSPA+ service (which it now markets as 4G) substantially, from 1.63 mbps in 2011 to 2.62 mbps in 2012. (We time-tested in few locations per city this year, and half of those locations were indoors.)
AT&T is chop-chop resonant down a 4G LTE electronic network to contend with Verizon's LTE service, likewise. So cold, the speeds that we've recorded for AT&adenylic acid;T's LTE net are impressive: In the 11 cities in our test group where the service is available, the network delivered an average download speed of 9.12 mbps. That's about 25 percent faster, on average out, than Verizon LTE's download norm of 7.09 mbps in those Saame ten cities. Verizon LTE was faster than AT&T LTE in only two of the 11 cities: New Orleans and San Jose.
The AT&adenosine monophosphate;T LTE electronic network, which launched in Sep of final stage year, is presently offered in 31 cities, far fewer than the 203 that Verizon's LTE electronic network serves. AT&T says that information technology expects its LTE electronic network to atomic number 4 complete by the finish of 2022, at which point users should be able to let 4G service anyplace that AT&T offers its 3G service today. AT&T says 4G customers can expect download speeds of between 5 mbps and 12 mbps, and upload speeds of between 2 mbps and 5 mbps.
AT&T's ace in the hole is its compelling pairing of 4G LTE service and 3G-equivalent HSPA+ service, which turned out to be the fastest combining offered aside some carrier in our study. When 4G service becomes unavailable on your AT&T 4G phone, the call up mechanically switches over to AT&T's HSPA+ network, which in our tests delivered snappy download speeds (2.62 mbps on average). As a answer, users won't experience the dramatic and frustrating 3G-to-4G hie decreases that they would along other services.
AT&T says it unbroken investing in its HSPA+ network to secure a smooth transition to 4G LTE.
"We ready-made a decision to straighten ongoing upgrades and invest in our mobile network, on our way to many broadly deployed 4G LTE, so our customers could enjoy fast speeds and the best possible experience," said St. John the Apostle Donovan, AT&T's V.P. of technology and network operations. "It's great to get word the results of our 4G network strategy in PCWorld's tests and in the feedback we'rhenium getting from our customers."
Next page: How Sprint performed.
Sprint: Running to Endure Still
Sprint's 3G and 4G services performed worse than some some other letter carrier's in our study. Sprint's 3G CDMA network has fared poorly in our study for the past two eld. And though our tests show that Sprint's 4G WiMax service is marginally faster this year than live yr, it's however not in the unvaried conference as its rivals' LTE services.
Sprint 3G clocked average speeds of 0.59 mbps (590 kbps) for downloads and 0.56 mbps (560 kbps) for uploads–adequate speeds for basic mobile tasks such equally browsing the Web (slowly) and checking email, but difficult for flowing video or medicine.
There ISN't a good deal good news about Dash's existing 4G WiMax overhaul either. We tested Sprint WiMax survive year in seven of the cities included in this year's study. In those seven cities, the service's median speeds improved from 1.99 mbps for downloads and 0.61 mbps for uploads to 2.66 mbps for downloads and 0.92 mbps for uploads. But Sprint's 4G service is about equally fast-paced arsenic AT&T's HSPA+ service, and quite bit slower than T-Mobile's HSPA+ 21 religious service. Most people consider some of these forms of HSPA+ to be 3G.
Sprint is clearly a fellowship at a technology critical point. In 2007, bore to be the first U.S. carrier to set up 4G service, Dash chose the primo engineering then available, WiMax. At once it's profitable a price for that decision in a wireless ecosystem that has overwhelmingly embraced the newer, faster LTE technology.
A the number of companies supplying WiMax devices, cellular base stations and different infrastructure equipment has shrunken over the past few years, the cost of running a WiMax network has grown, forcing Dash to invest long more money than its competitors to build the same speed and capability into its network. So for the past times 18 months Sprint has been figuring down how to shift to LTE while still supporting its active 3G and WiMax customers.
Sprint interpreter Gene Kelly Schlageter acknowledges the limitations of her company's network and service now, merely she notes that speeds are non the sole measure of a receiving set service. "We trust that customers value not merely peak speeds, simply also, and peradventure more importantly, the overall get they get from their carrier–a combining of speed, overall network quality, customer experience, and value for the damage they make up."
Sprint is executing its "Network Vision" plan to convert its infrastructure to LTE, spell workings with its WiMax partner Clearwire to convert its network to LTE. The company says it will launch the 4G LTE in several cities this summer.
Dash network chief Bob Azzi said recently that his ship's company won't release any more WiMax phones (earlier, Sprint had said that information technology would let go of new WiMax phones throughout 2012), suggesting that Sprint is serious about launching LTE table service by midyear, as promised.
The plan will improve coverage, call quality, and data speeds in Sprint's 3G CDMA service, Schlageter says: "Cell sites with the new Network Vision equipment are popping up across the country now and bequeath continue to come on strain over the next 24 months covering the entire CDMA footprint."
Meanwhile, the carrier seems to be caught in a bind, with plodding 3G service and 4G WiMax service that's the slowest 4G option in today's market. "Sprint's 3G meshwork is suffering from chronic underinvestment, and its LTE meshing isn't intelligent for primetime yet," says Sanford C. Bernstein senior psychoanalyst Craig Moffett.
Next page: How T-Mobile performed.
T-Mobile Wins Astronomic in 3G
T-Mobile's radio services don't burst neatly into the 3G and 4G categories that we ill-used in our study. The carrier considers any T-Mobile phone that uses the HSPA+14.4 technology operating room high to be a 4G phone. Whether or not HSPA+ is a true 4G engineering is a murky guinea pig that continues to spark debate within the wireless diligence.
To steer clear of that controversy, we chose to classify T-Mobile's wireless services by how well they matched upwards with competing services in the marketplace. For example, the data transmit speeds we recorded when testing T-Mobile's advanced HSPA+42 (named for its theoretical top rush of 42 mbps) service compared well with those for the 4G services of the past carriers, so we baked it every bit competing directly with those services. We used a new T-Mobile HSPA+42 phone, the HTC Amaze, in pair-ups against the deep-model 4G phones of the early carriers.
We took the same approach with T-Mobile HSPA+21 overhaul, which compared well with the 3G services of the else carriers, putting it head-to-chief against those 3G services.
T-Mobile showed very well in the 3G competition, beating the challenger in every city we tested except Dallas and Stops, where AT&T's HSPA+ service attained top Marks. T-Unsettled's HSPA+ 21 service clocked download speeds averaging 3.84 mbps crossways our 13 exam cities and upload speeds averaging 1.44 mbps. Overall, T-Mobile's speeds were about 50 percent quicker, on the average, than those of the second-place closer AT&T, which posted 13-city averages of 2.62 mbps for downloads and 0.85 mbps for uploads.
T-Mobile's HSPA+ 42 inspection and repair was passing homogenous, averaging between 3 mbps and 5 mbps for downloads in all 13 cities we tested in, and averaging between 1 mbps and 2 mbps for uploads in almost all cities. That level of speed is fine for TV streaming, a Service that T-Mobile says galore of its customers use frequently.
"Nearly 50 percent of our 4G data traffic is video streaming, and growing, which shows our customers birth very embraced the T-Wandering 4G experience," says Cross out McDiarmid, T-Mobile's vice president of engineering.
Overall T-Mobile's HSPA+ 42 service delivered a 13-city medium download speed of 5.53 mbps, versus 9.12 mbps for AT&T's 4G LTE service and 7.35 mbps for Verizon's. It as wel blew by Sprint's 4G WiMax service, which averaged 2.8 mbps across the 13 test cities.
Unfortunately, the HSPA+ 42 military service's 13-city upload amphetamine average of 1.32 mbps cruel well at a lower place Verizon's 5.86 mbps and AT&T's 4.91 mbps. That transfer rate could cause problems for T-Mobile customers who need to use their phones to shoot live video operating theatre to portion out large files.
When the T-Flying HSPA+ 42 is not available, the phone downshifts to the T-Motile HSPA+ 21 technology, which in our experience unremarkably didn't final result in disruptive speed decreases.
T-Mobile's solid carrying into action in our tests comes subsequently a tough business enterprise year for the carrier: The FCC and the FTC blocked its prearranged sale to AT&T, and more recently IT has begun egg laying off employees (1900 so far) and closing call centers (seven so furthest).
While T-Mobile markets both of its HSPA+ services as being 4G, it has also declared that IT hopes to launch its own LTE service in 2022 to compete with those of its large competitors. (But since T-Mobile calls its current service "4G," what will it call its LTE network–"4G-ER"? "4G+"? "4G 2.0"?) The carrier has aforesaid that IT is laying off workers and closing song centers to save money for the new LTE network.
Though T-Mobile has been losing customers over the past year–in part because of its long courtship with AT&T–it continues to offer up pricing plans (prepaid and postpaid/no contract) that are more flexible and less expensive than the ones its larger competitors offer. And that difference in approach demonstrates the wisdom of scuttling the AT&adenosine monophosphate;T/T-Mobile planned merger: The U.S. radio market needs a (relatively) small, innovative insurrectionist to compete with the big boys to spur innovation and maintain prices in restraint.
The results of our tests evoke that T-Maneuverable International Relations and Security Network't just the "low-cost drawing card," either; its information service rivals those of AT&T and Verizon. The fact is that many an (though not all) consumers nates save money with a T-Mobile plan–and father discriminating information service, to a fault.
"The big success here is T-Mobile," says Sanford Bernstein's Moffett. "If you can get past the '4G versus faux-G' hurdle, T-Mobile's network offers very good value for the money."
Next page: How Verizon performed.
Verizon 3G and 4G Hold Steady
Verizon's 4G was the first LTE service to hand out the market; and in this year's tests information technology showed that it has lost little surgery no speed since introduction in December 2010, averaging 7.35 mbps for downloads and 5.86 mbps for uploads in our 13 test cities. Verizon has told its 4G customers to expect download speeds of 'tween 5 mbps and 12 mbps and upload speeds of 'tween 2 mbps and 5 mbps, and until now it has delivered connected those estimates.
Over the previous year, Verizon has been trying to move arsenic many a of its customers as possible from its 3G CDMA network to its new 4G LTE network. Yet, only a small minority of Verizon subscribers use 4G devices, merely the number will continue to grow as contracts expire and people upgrade to 4G.
Still, in the short terminus, Verizon's 3G electronic network will carry the bulk of the company's data traffic, which has grown significantly in the past year as many and more data-hungry iPhone users extract large amounts of data from the network.
Scorn these pressures–and in contrast to antepenultimate year's tests, where Verizon's 3G network yielded slower medium transfer multiplication than it had the twelvemonth before–Verizon 3G has stepped upwards its speed a trifle this year. In the octet cities general to our 2011 and 2012 studies, Verizon's average 3G download speeds rose from 0.83 mbps to 1.05 mbps, while its average 3G upload rates hyperbolic from 0.64 mbps to 0.73 mbps.
But Verizon's modest gains in 3G speed came As AT&T and T-Changeful dramatically improved the pep pill of their 3G-equivalent services over the past two years. Verizon's 13-metropolis average download speed in our tests of 1.05 mbps is to a lesser degree half the average speed of AT&T HSPA+ (2.62 mbps), less than a thirdly of that of T-Mobile's HSPA+ 21 overhaul (3.84 mbps), and only about 0.46 mbps faster than that of Dash's CDMA (0.59 mbps).
The normal speeds of Verizon's LTE service didn't grow much from utmost yr either, but information technology was already rattling fast. The Robert William Service certified a 13-city average download race of 7.35 mbps–somewhat let down than the rate that AT&T's late LTE service posted in the 10 cities in our test where AT&A;T LTE is available.
In a statement, Verizon disputes our study's findings: "The immense majority of highly regarded third-party studies and tests consistently place Verizon Radio set 4G LTE network and data services ahead of the pack in terms of speeding, quality, and reliability."
In its favor, Verizon's LTE armed service is battle-tested, highly reliable, and available in far more cities (203 at this writing) than AT&T's. Also, Verizon's LTE network had quicker upload speeds than AT&T's did, averaging 5.86 mbps versus AT&adenosine monophosphate;T's 4.91 mbps.
Still, our results suggest that Verizon's combining of 3G CDMA and 4G LTE service isn't as persuasive today as AT&T's combination of 3G HSPA+ and 4G LTE technology. Verizon's LTE is slower than AT&T's for downloads; and when a Verizon 4G device loses its 4G connector, information technology waterfall rear to Verizon 3G–an average drop by our tests from 7.35 mbps to a modest 1.05 mbps. If this happens while you're in the midst of uploading a file or watching a picture, the slowdown pot be very noticeable. In contrast, an AT&T 4G exploiter would experience a less disruptive downshift to 3G, dropping from a 9.12 mbps average download speed on 4G to a 2.62 mbps moderate on 3G.
Verizon says that its 4G users won't have a "CDMA pullout" job for long. "[T]helium Verizon Wireless customer's 4G experience more and more is contained within the 4G footprint," the company noted. "And by next yr, our 4G LTE network will cover virtually the entire United States of America, interpreting the overstated 4G vs. 3G coverage discussion arguable."
Next Page: Our testing methodology.
Methodology in a Nutshell
Ken Biba, CTO of our testing partner Novarum, traveled to Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Novel York, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. to psychometric test the performance of each of the four national wireless services (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon) at various locations of the cities. Our try cities were elect for their varying population densities, physical topography, and living thing environments.
We tested the various radio services at ten locations in each metropolis—Little Phoeb indoors (a great deal in a Starbucks) and quintuplet out-of-doors. We selected testing locations settled connected a gridiron cover the nerve center of the city, but we did not essa service in suburbs or in rural areas.
We asked the iv wireless carriers to ship us the 3G and 4G phones they opinion would perform Sunday-go-to-meeting connected their data networks. For our 3G tests, we got a Motorola Atrix 2 (AT&T), an LG Marquee (Sprint), a Samsung Chum 4G (T-Mobile), and an HTC Droid Incredible (Verizon). For our 4G tests, we received an HTC Vivid (AT&T), a Samsung Galaxy S II (aka Epos 4G Touch, from Sprint), an HTC Baffle (T-Mobile), and a Motorola Droid Razr (Verizon).
On each phone, we used the FCC-approved Ookla testing app to measure speeds. At each testing emplacemen, we had Ookla send information to and from a server on one glide, and then to and from a server on the opposite coast; then we averaged the results. Especially with 4G service, we found that the far the server is from the twist, the higher the network's latency time (the time that passes before the transfer starts) is, and the slower the upload and download speeds are.
If no 4G signal was uncommitted, we recorded the speed of the fallback 3G network.
We chose our whole winners supported on a weighted composite score that factored in the services' download speeds and their upload speeds. Each sequent speed number has a margin of wrongdoing of summation or minus 5 percent.
Because wireless signal quality depends to a large extent along variables much as electronic network lode, distance from the closest cell pillar, weather, and time of day, we privy't predict exact functioning in a specific arena based on our results. However, the results do illustrate the relation functioning of receiving set overhaul in a given metropolis on a given day.
Indication the Charts
The city-specific charts (like the one for Atlanta at right) report average 3G and 4G speeds–both for uploads and for downloads–for each wireless postman in each of the 13 cities where we conducted testing. The bars connected the left represent 3G speed information, and those on the right represent 4G stop number data. The lower set of bars in all case shows the carriers' average download travel rapidly for the city, and the speed set reflects their average upload speeds.
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Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/469946/3g_and_4g_wireless_speed_showdown_which_networks_are_fastest_.html
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