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What are the forum's opinions on Verizon's network? Especially those of you who changed to Verizon from another network for the Incredible.
I'll be honest. The network has not been bad, I have service most places and 3g is decently reliable and fast. Not really digging that antenna indicator that makes up the bars on it's own, but performance was pretty good.
However, I didn't expect 'ok.' I expected 'The Network.' I expected moving from tmobile, the smallest carrier, and the n1, a phone with horrible antenna problems for alot of people, to get reception anywhere other people had reception. But in my area [suburb of Dallas TX] ATT seems to actually have more reliable coverage. In my house Tmo gets no reception [my house is a dead zone apparently.] ATT gets full reception. So in changing to verizon I checked their coverage map.... full 3g everywhere in my area. 1 bar in my house. 3g in my garage. Better than Tmo but ATT is 5 bars 3g!
And as far cities or major areas... never had a probl with Tmo there, always good HSPA. But leave a city and roll the dice.
Overall I rate Verizons network a 4 for North Texas Area. Tmo 3 Sprint 2 Att 5.
For Boston, my TMobile phones had much better call quality/clarity. I have not dropped any Verizon calls yet, but it is sometimes hard to understand what the other person is saying on the far side of the line.
On the other hand, the 3g speed and coverage has seemed good.
I have noticed the greater 3G coverage. I came from AT&T and this weekend I traveled across the country and spent some time in 6 different states, CA, IL, TX, NY, NJ, PA. Some were just driving through, others were airports. Never once did I notice a lack of 3G coverage. However most of the time I was at 1 or 2 bars, although that didn't seem to effect my experience.
It even worked in the plane at 30k feet, but only when I was above a major city. Gave me enough time to download an app. (yeah I know they don't want you to do that, I'm bad)
Coming from AT&T I do miss one thing, Data+Voice at the same time. More than a few times I was on a call with the hotel or car rental and they asked me for information I did not have handy. It was in my emails, but I couldn't access data to get them while on the phone. So I was put in a position where I had to anticipate what information I needed before a call and pull it up first. Another time I was talking to a friend about where we were going to meet, and I couldnt access Google Maps. It's kinda annoying.
I switched from T-mobile and while I'm gonna be missing my nexus once that 2.2 update comes out, my coverage is amazingly better, and my service overall wasn't that bad to begin with. Verizon has far surpassed my expectations.
Verizon user here who left Big Red, went to Big Orange, and then back to Verizon.
In my experience (here in central and western Pennsylvania), AT&T is hands down faster. This is simply the case with GSM as opposed to CDMA. However, 3G coverage with AT&T is spotty, whereas Verizon is awesome.
I have also noticed a misconception that # of bars is best indicator of performance. A better measuring tool is to check the following:
Menu > Settings > About Phone > Network
Take note of the Signal Strength. Somewhere around 50 dBm is almost excellent coverage while the closer you get to 100 dBm is borderline questionable coverage.
I am back with Verizon after less than a year with Sprint, and I am glad to be back. I had left VZW because of their crippled phones (reduced memory - disabled features - etc.), and not because of their service, which was fine.
I was quickly reminded that no matter how good a phone is, it's not worth a damn when paired with lousy service. Obviously YMMV, but where I live, near the edge of town but supposedly in a perfectly normal coverage area, Sprint is seriously lacking.
Average signal at my desk with Sprint was -95db or worse, and maybe as good as -92 if I went upstairs. Calls would drop fairly often, but even worse were the ones that *didn't* drop completely, and instead just went all flaky with audio cut-outs (with both phones I had on Sprint, the Touch Pro & the Hero). I was always running upstairs anytime an important call came in, just for the few db less signal loss, in the hopes that Sprint wouldn't ruin the call and make an ass out of me again (I can do that just fine on my own, thanks). Data throughput was also pretty inconsistent on Sprint. Sometimes it would work great while I was at some other location such as onsite with a client, but that just wasn't good enough. I need my phone to work where I live.
Anyways, back with Verizon things seem pretty steady for me. I get an average of -90db or better at my desk, sometimes as good as -85db, and if I go upstairs I have seen signals as good as -78db hold for a while. I have only had a single dropped call, and I saw no sign that it was a signal issue at the time. All of my calls have been clear, with no detected or reported audio cut-outs. Real-world data throughput is also much better for me than it was with Sprint. Web pages load consistently where they used to be sporadic, downloads don't stall anymore, and videos buffer just fine that I couldn't even touch on Sprint. No complaints about service here.
I wish Sprint all the best, but they won't be getting any more $$$ from me anytime soon. As for Verizon...well...what can I say except "Hey baby, thanks for taking me back! I missed you."
trevorwhopkins said:
Overall I rate Verizons network a 4 for North Texas Area. Tmo 3 Sprint 2 Att 5.
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Att 5, lmao
Try this get speedtest from the market, have your friend get speedtest from the app store, whenever you have the chance post run the test 3 times simultaneously and see how bad att network is. att network is like a ford fiesta, nobody wants it, but some are forced to endure it.
my conclusion on vzw is i am ususlayy getting 1.5-1.75 Mbps down and 600-1000Kbps up all the time at different locations. My friends iphone has never hit more than 1.2 , usually its 400-800Kbps down and up 200-500Kbps
i know different areas have different speeds, but in my area and most areas i have been to, mostly west coast, these results seem to be the norm
VZW coverage has always been great for me. Everywhere I go I ubersexual great reception in voice and 3g. I work in the Nevada desert sometimes and had data coverage where I wouldn't have expected it. And voice coverage was nearly always there. Can't wait for LTE.
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Once I exchanged my phone for another because of something unrelated to signal I have noticed a difference. Before my phone would stick on 1x but now sitting in the exactly the same spot I only get as low as Rev-A. So there was an obvious problem with the radio on my last Incredible.
I've seen a few places where ATT could get out and VZW can't. Usually on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. Having said that VZW is always crystal clear where ATT is garbled. I drop a VZW call about every 6 months.
I don't know what the Incredible's deal is with bars for the signal indicator, hut its not accurate. With the MOTO Droid sitting side by side, the DI always have less bars but is you watch the actual dbm, its the same or slightly better. I given on using bars at all. I just check that I have signal. I've done a lot of travelling and I have not lost service yet. some of my travel is in rural Mississippi.
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I had to go with a 4. VZW service is the best I've ever had, but coming from T-Mo, I got spoiled by the voice+data simultaneously. If that somehow became possible on CDMA networks, VZW would be perfect in my eyes.
I live 20 miles out in the suburbs in SC and I get 2 bars and 3G all day long. VZW has the coverage.
I came from AT&T to Verizon last month in NJ. It's one of the states where it's just blanketed in every cell service. Verizon is the best network I have ever seen. AT&T's network was unusable at times. Their data network was complete and utter garbage. I browse faster with Verizon on one bar than I ever did with AT&T with full bars. I'll never, ever go back.
I to am in NJ (NY Metro Area) Signal strength at home is a constant -71dbm, and at work a phenomenal -64dbm, had Sprint(my work),ATT(wifes work),TMobile (Son's current) all were "ok" but data by far is much faster with VZ, and I don't recall any dropped calls.
Super fast 3G outside...Tmobile's was MUCH slower. But seems like T-mobile signal in Atlanta could penetrate any building and the second I walk indoors with Verizon I am jumping around on 1x all the time. Cant get a 3G signal at work and spend 9 hours of my day there. T-mobile full bars of 3G goodness. 1 dropped call so far in 3 weeks so thats really good.
Verizon network is good here in Washington D.C. Metro area and surrounding areas. Ive only seen one dead zone while riding VRE train, its between stafford and quantico. Ive never had dropped calls or bad call quality. Only complaint i have is 3g speeds seem to be a lot slower in the city dunno if its maintenance or just too many people on the towers or w/e. Not even able to stream internet radio sometimes while in the city. speedtest.net app shows between 80kbps and 200kbps while in city. I get up to 4000kbps at my house outside the city in Fredericksburg.
Cycling from 3G to 1X
Data service will not lock into 3g but every few minutes jumps between 1X and 3g with attendant decrease and increase in data rates: 1x - 60 to 90 kbps down, 40 to 80 kbps up, 3g - 240 to 400 kbps down, 180 to 320 kbps up, all are average and sometimes much better on 3G during non peak periods. VZ reports no data problems at location and said to contact HTC.
Not a signal strength or reception problem and does not happen on two other phones sitting side by side with INC. INC: -87 to -89 db, Samsung Omnia II: -86 to -88 db, BB 8330: -87 to -89 db. All other phones have solid 3g signal and data rates all the time.
I really hesitate to exchange this phone because everything else appears to be working fine after doing the EVRC-B change to improve voice quality and I don't want to get another one with some other problem. Guess I'll wait as long as possible in the 30 day trial in hopes that either a fix is put out or a later batch of phones won't have the problem.
Re: Cycling from 3G to 1X
Replying to my own message: I now know why I am seeing this behavior. I got a free app "Real Signal" from the Market which displays the CDMA and EVDO signals in db separately. If this app is accurate my INC has a 10 to 20 db difference between the two with the CDMA -87 to -89 and the EVDO -95 to -118. So it looks like my INC has an antenna problem or a radio front end problem for the 1900 MHz band.
Also it seems that the change from EVRC to EVRC-B has not improved my voice quality as much as I thought as all day yesterday I had several calls that were muffled and dropping syllables. I do wish that HTC would get its act together as this is a great device otherwise.
I had iPhone 3G on AT&T in northern VA now with Incredible on Verizon I see huge upgrade in terms of speed and covarage. Its great!! also incredible is far better phone than iPhone.
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010...arwire-to-offer-best-buy-branded-wimax-plans/
For those of you who don't want to pay Sprint's ridiculous $80/mo, hope is on the way soon!!! Best buy 4g plans for $40/mo where you could simply use the 4g connection on your unlocked Evo 4g to make your calls over VOIP? Not having to pay an imaginary $10 fee just to line Sprint's executives pockets? Mmmmmmmmmmm
It would be simply AMAZING if more retailers like Best Buy, Radio Shack, etc started offering wireless Clearwire plans since this would absolutely cripple the big 4's monopoly prices and open up the smartphone world to everyone... not just the rich yuppies that don't mind being bent over paying $80/mo
Good luck using 4G in a non-4G market, on the road, or indoors.
drmacinyasha said:
Good luck using 4G in a non-4G market, on the road, or indoors.
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Good luck using Clear, regardless. It's still a very new technology in the terms of using it in a WAN scenario and, as a former Clear customer, it's very shaky at best. Their WiMax modems are meh and the signal really sucks. It's also subject to adverse weather conditions (high winds in Las Vegas). The biggest problem I see is that their modems (I don't know about the Evo) seem to not connect to the closest or strongest signal, they just up and connect to whatever is available willy nilly and can generate connectivity issues due to that. When I had it, I also had issues when connecting network devices (router, switch, hub, anything) to the modem - as in high latency across the network and getting out but when connecting directly to the modem with my laptop I would have a perfect connection. Unless Clear has really changed in the last 6 months, they're really not that great for the services they tout in their commercials - VoIP, Skype/video chat, HD video streaming, fast browsing, and fast downloads.
Oh, I forgot their NIGHTLY maintenance. Yes, nightly. Your connection will 100% die at around 2-3am. I called them on this and they said it was just antenna updates and should only happen once a week but I was experiencing otherwise. If you go to dslreports.com and look up their reviews, they're typically negative ones.
Most of the Clear reviews are for their PRE-wimax service...
EtherealRemnant said:
Most of the Clear reviews are for their PRE-wimax service...
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Their post-WiMax service is just as bad, from my experience.
I don't know how many here use podcast app that download mp3 files such as google listen, but for me this has recently been very slow unless using wifi. No mater wich app, kernel, modem, rom... I can only get 10kB/s. I'm not over the 5 gig limit either and everything else is plenty fast as it should be.
It appears that tmo is slowing all mp3 files down except the amazon mp3 app. Has anyone else been having issues with this?
I've found one other thread on the tmo forums about the issue.
XDA App
My data connection was pretty crappy last week. Back to normal this week.
This has been going on for almost two months for me
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I haven't been able to dl car talk via npr podcast apps on 3g as of late, this would explain why
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Amazon MP3 is slow on AT&T or T-Mobile for me.
This is impossible unless they are targeting particular hosts, but I think that might be illegal.
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It's definitely not impossible. As to the legality of it, that may be more of a gray area. They can make many seemingly reasonable claims to justify it, including improving the efficiency of their network.
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Well I really hope this is not true because this will heavily sway my current somewhat positive view of them.
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SeanFloyd said:
Yeah, **** tmobile. Never realized how ****ty the network was till my gf got a Samsung Epic on Sprint. ****s all over tmobile.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
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Sprint is garbage around these parts and they have traffic shaping as well - all carriers do. 4G a horrible experience because of the constant disconnects/loss of signal.
heygrl said:
Sprint is garbage around these parts and they have traffic shaping as well - all carriers do. 4G a horrible experience because of the constant disconnects/loss of signal.
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Can't comment on the 4g sentiment but her 3g on Sprint seems at least twice as fast as T-Mobile's 3g. I am living in the Phoenix area so there should be ample coverage.
SeanFloyd said:
Can't comment on the 4g sentiment but her 3g on Sprint seems at least twice as fast as T-Mobile's 3g. I am living in the Phoenix area so there should be ample coverage.
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You're kidding right? You must be in an area with a ton of T-Mobile customers because the last time I was out there Sprint 3G was complete garbage and I was getting 2-5Mbps easy with T-Mobile's 3G. Not to mention, Sprint's data card was switching back between 1X and EV-DO on Sprint and downloading any type of file at 27KB/sec. It was really pathetic and still is. There are rampant complaints about Sprint 3G in Phoenix right on this forum.. look in the Evo section.
This is definitely real. Just google it, people are complaining lots of places. It's odd because I can download other audio formats of the exact same file (or any other type of file I've tried) at normal speed. Speedtest confirms a solid 5.5mbps connection. I hit tmo up on twitter about it but haven't heard a response. Haven't tried calling them but others confirm they have.
I not sure it's illegal as of now. They control their networks until some form of net neutrality is passed.
yea ive noticed the same thing
I've noticed the same thing, google listen downloads over 3g are slow, wifi fast. When listening to shows on rapid transit, invariably the TCP connection will either break or I will hit the 'end' in the middle of the down load, and I'm left with like half a friggin download to listen to.
Slowing it down is easy to do. There are traffic shapers, the most popular ones are Sandvine and the Cisco Service Control Engine, that can pick out traffic and traffic signatures and rate limit them in hardware.
The legality is questionable if they don't disclose what they are doing up front.
I've been meaning to setup a vpn with home and the phone to avoid this slow down, but haven't found the time.
I actually spoke to a tmobile rep about this cuz I had experienced this problem for about a month. they went through the usual steps..... Turn off phone, take out sim card and battery, and ofcourse clear my browsers cache, that was a load of crap. Anyways the rep told me that I had an outdated sim card in my phone, I got a new one and still my downloads of twit podcasts and other MP3 files are slow as hell.
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Same issue with a Nexus S. Called tmobile, claimed they have never heard of the problem, but their engineers will look at it when they get a chance since it is a low priority issue. So lame. However, not everyone is having this problem, it almost seems to be affecting people in certain area's I for one am in Orlando.
It's not a problem, you've just wasted your time by calling in.. it's intentional to manage network traffic. Even Slacker streams are shaped.
heygrl said:
Sprint is garbage around these parts and they have traffic shaping as well - all carriers do. 4G a horrible experience because of the constant disconnects/loss of signal.
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Sprint has a bigger network 3G network than T-Mobile - Voice too. T-Mobile depends on Roaming for voice, and they aren't building out their data network - just upgrading them to HSPA+ (Software upgrade, not hard or expensive).
Traveling around with an AT&T or Sprint phone is a different experience than T-Mobile. Driving to Houston, my Vibrant was drops signal (Voice and Data) between major cities like nothing.
That never happened when I had an AT&T phone. I could basically be on 3G the whole way there... My phone would never become useless while traveling.
With T-Mobile if you travel to some cities you also run the risk of having nothing but GPRS for voice and no decent data connection. The risk of that with the larger carriers is much less. T-Mobile is decent in bigger cities, but outside of them (I'm talking, drive 3-5 miles out of some of them) they are terrible.
They're cheap because the service is cheap, compared to other carriers. AT&T and Verizon get by with charging more because their networks are huge by comparison, and while AT&T has had issues they have been consistently building their network out and adding capacity. T-Mobile and Sprint haven't (not that they need to, they aren't that large). AT&T just put up a new tower here, for example, so they're the only carrier around here with 3G/HSPA coverage.
T-Mobile gets voice coverage due to roaming contracts. Verizon and Sprint get little to no coverage here...
EDIT: GSM 3G is faster than CDMA 3G. There's really no argument about that. Of course, if T-Mobile doesn't have great towers/service where you live that can flip. But Coverage and Reliability > Speed, and that's why T-Mobile is still the smallest carrier despite having the best prices/plans. Their 3G network is too small, and unreliable especially if you travel and/or live outside of major cities.
ibous said:
It's definitely not impossible. As to the legality of it, that may be more of a gray area. They can make many seemingly reasonable claims to justify it, including improving the efficiency of their network.
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Horrible since with that excuse they cap everything,while still selling in BIG LETTERS The FASTEST 4G NETWORK.
N8ter said:
Sprint has a bigger network 3G network than T-Mobile - Voice too. T-Mobile depends on Roaming for voice, and they aren't building out their data network - just upgrading them to HSPA+ (Software upgrade, not hard or expensive).
Traveling around with an AT&T or Sprint phone is a different experience than T-Mobile. Driving to Houston, my Vibrant was drops signal (Voice and Data) between major cities like nothing.
That never happened when I had an AT&T phone. I could basically be on 3G the whole way there... My phone would never become useless while traveling.
With T-Mobile if you travel to some cities you also run the risk of having nothing but GPRS for voice and no decent data connection. The risk of that with the larger carriers is much less. T-Mobile is decent in bigger cities, but outside of them (I'm talking, drive 3-5 miles out of some of them) they are terrible.
They're cheap because the service is cheap, compared to other carriers. AT&T and Verizon get by with charging more because their networks are huge by comparison, and while AT&T has had issues they have been consistently building their network out and adding capacity. T-Mobile and Sprint haven't (not that they need to, they aren't that large). AT&T just put up a new tower here, for example, so they're the only carrier around here with 3G/HSPA coverage.
T-Mobile gets voice coverage due to roaming contracts. Verizon and Sprint get little to no coverage here...
EDIT: GSM 3G is faster than CDMA 3G. There's really no argument about that. Of course, if T-Mobile doesn't have great towers/service where you live that can flip. But Coverage and Reliability > Speed, and that's why T-Mobile is still the smallest carrier despite having the best prices/plans. Their 3G network is too small, and unreliable especially if you travel and/or live outside of major cities.
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Verizon has better cover than both from what i read.
But here in Puerto Rico T-mobile is good,and i have data pretty much any were i go,they are cheap because they are the smaller guys not the big ones,and have a much better customer service than AT&T which ranked last.
Some of the best phone plans here were made by a company call Movi Star,before Movi start everything cell phone related here in Puerto Rico was ultra expensive.
In fact by the late 90's here you were charge by the minutes,in plans of 400 minutes and so and they counted both ways in or out,text ultra expensive as well,like .30 cents a text or more.
Movi Star actually came with the first all call receive free plan,and it was a hit,they also boosted the first pre-pay phones with unlimited receive calls free as long as you had balance to make calls as well.
Not only that they also came with the first plan here in Puerto Rico,that included both calls incoming and outgoing unlimited for a fixed price,in that time it was $99 dollars i remember it,it was like 1998 i think.
By that time the PRTC,Cellular One were the tops dogs here,and a 1000 minute plan on any of the 2 could cost you almost what Movi Star charged,but you only have 1000 minutes that counted both ways,with Movi Star it was unlimited.
Now that company is call Open Mobile and they sell just pre-pay phones,they are not as attractive to customers because they don't have a huge selection of phones,and they sell the phone to you without financial,unlike T-mobile and AT&T which sell you the phone cheap or free to tie you in the contract.
In fact they have the cheapest plan of any company here in Puerto Rico and have good signal to,they charge you $55 for unlimited calls, unlimited data,unlimited text.unlimited US long distance calls,Unlimited roaming in US,and even 411 (information to ask for numbers) Unlimited.
All that for $55 dollars,the only down side is that they don't use sim cards,and that only some Sprint phones are compatible out side the ones they sell you,and android phones like the hero are expensive like $300.
So you see usually the best plans comes from the smaller guys,because when they are big like AT&T they charge people what ever they want,is the number 1 reason why AT&T and T-mobile merge should not be allowed,because once T-mobile is in and the rest of the contracts are up,the abuse will begin,and believe me they will rise they price once your contract is done.
T-mobile service is not cheap because is bad,is cheap because T-mobile is not as big as AT&T and Verizon so to bring customers in they have to offer better prices,just because AT&T over charge for their services doesn't mean that what T-mobile is doing most be because their signal is bad.
I have used both for more than 30 days and have hi end phones on both. I will be rating calling and data, but mostly data.
Notes: unlimited data for both, 20% off verzion and bills are base 54.99 for AT&T and about 56 for Verzion.
I will start with verzion's pro's and con's:
Pro's:
1)Call's are loud and clear. Never droped one yet. Calling get's 10/10 so far.
2) Data:When It is working It's very fast and help's my home internet when it quits on me.
Cons:
1)Data: 3g is way slower than at&t/ 1DL vs 3-6DL and .5UL vs 1UL. 4G LTE has quit working 3-5 times a week and the speed don't AWAYS best h+ on AT&T.
2) Phones: 300 to start and no phone that is as smooth as the SGS2 in web pages.
Now At&t:
Pro's:
1) calling: loud and clear and able to call 911 in more places than verzion. ( I was in a few "dead zones" and on At&T I could still call 911 vs verzion saying no go.
2) Data on 3G is faster than verzions 3g and it shows. It has NEVER cut me off unlike the big red.
Con's:
1) Calling on lower bars it gets bader than verzion does on one bar. I have droped 2 calls in about 120-180 days.
2) Data: It's slower than verzion by a lot, but I just got LTE were I live. ( That does me no good for my GT 9100 that is only H+.)
Ok now for the ponits:
At&t:
Calling 8/10
Data:9.5/10
Speed: 7/10
%of time working:10/10
Verzion:
Calling 10/10
Data over all: 9.5
Speed: 9.7/10
%of time working: 7/10
over all At&T 9/10 and Verzion 9/10
Comments? and who else seem to be on the some boat when comes to what you see form both of them?
Thank you
More notes:
Phones used: Samsung galaxy 2 on At&t/ Droid RAZR on Verzion
Hmmmm.......I think you're forgetting a major grading factor. Coverage. I had both. ATT was pretty much worthless 80% of the time unless you were in a major city. Had the same problems with Sprint but at lease big Yellow was honest about it. I've seen ATT coverage map. Really ATT? Who are you fooling?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Hold on, there's life outside of major cities???
TechSavvy2 said:
Hmmmm.......I think you're forgetting a major grading factor. Coverage. I had both. ATT was pretty much worthless 80% of the time unless you were in a major city. Had the same problems with Sprint but at lease big Yellow was honest about it. I've seen ATT coverage map. Really ATT? Who are you fooling?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
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Weird, I was travelling a week ago, I had a 3G signal constantly, albeit not as fast as I'm used too (spoiled by LTE), but definitely usable.
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Thread moved. Would advise you to read forum rules and post in correct section.
i havent had issues with either. in general if i was in a location with low reception with AT&T it was the same with Verizon.
SevenSe7enSeven said:
i havent had issues with either. in general if i was in a location with low reception with AT&T it was the same with Verizon.
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Their coverage maps are practically identical, with little differences.
Longcat14 said:
Their coverage maps are practically identical, with little differences.
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That's why I laugh when people say their coverages are so different.
The only real difference right now is their respective LTE networks.
I Am Marino said:
That's why I laugh when people say their coverages are so different.
The only real difference right now is their respective LTE networks.
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If someone says VZW has more LTE coverage, that's totally ****ing obvious, VZW has had LTE up for longer then a year, while AT&T has had it up for, 2 months?
When it comes to their 3G networks, if you placed the maps on top of each other, it's completely the same, other then VZW having a bit more around utah, nevada, places like that.
If I had graded coverage AT&T would win. I could tell why, but I know the big red is like apple that can do no bad/is like well you know.
Right now my H+ is doing fine with 1080p video from youtube and my razr is stoping every 30-90sec lol. Same vid about some spot, same 3-4 bars.
Edit: All the loading has put the razr about 4min back.
Edit2: now my S2 is at about 21min and the razr about 13min.
4ktvs said:
I have used both for more than 30 days and have hi end phones on both. I will be rating calling and data, but mostly data.
Notes: unlimited data for both, 20% off verzion and bills are base 54.99 for AT&T and about 56 for Verzion.
I will start with verzion's pro's and con's:
Pro's:
1)Call's are loud and clear. Never droped one yet. Calling get's 10/10 so far.
2) Data:When It is working It's very fast and help's my home internet when it quits on me.
Cons:
1)Data: 3g is way slower than at&t/ 1DL vs 3-6DL and .5UL vs 1UL. 4G LTE has quit working 3-5 times a week and the speed don't AWAYS best h+ on AT&T.
2) Phones: 300 to start and no phone that is as smooth as the SGS2 in web pages.
Now At&t:
Pro's:
1) calling: loud and clear and able to call 911 in more places than verzion. ( I was in a few "dead zones" and on At&T I could still call 911 vs verzion saying no go.
2) Data on 3G is faster than verzions 3g and it shows. It has NEVER cut me off unlike the big red.
Con's:
1) Calling on lower bars it gets bader than verzion does on one bar. I have droped 2 calls in about 120-180 days.
2) Data: It's slower than verzion by a lot, but I just got LTE were I live. ( That does me no good for my GT 9100 that is only H+.)
Ok now for the ponits:
At&t:
Calling 8/10
Data:9.5/10
Speed: 7/10
%of time working:10/10
Verzion:
Calling 10/10
Data:
Speed: 9.2/10
%of time working: 7/10
over all At&T 9/10 and Verzion 9/10
Comments? and who else seem to be on the some boat when comes to what you see form both of them?
Thank you
More notes:
Phones used: Samsung galaxy 2 on At&t/ Droid RAZR on Verzion
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Are you sure you DONT have HSPA+ in your area BUT you have LTE?
Because HSPA+ utilizes the SAME towers as 3G.
These ratings sounds about right; esp. since you used a non-iOS device to do your testings
I have both AT&T and verzion LTE in the city I live in, but my S2 only has h+21mbs.
I don't think I will be geting an iphone any time soon. the os is just as bad as andriod to me. ( Thats right they both suck vs win xp the solid as a rock OS. )
Hahaha.. everything has it's flaws. My theory is that.. there isn't one OS superior to another.. the one that aligns with your needs is the one that is superior.
I think your right and I can't wait for all the iphone fans to read that. LOL
XP SP3 crashed less than any OS I have ever used. (98,2000,vista,7,8,Andorid and IOS v5)
I've given up trying to explain it. Trust me, although I do love iOS for it's ease of use and the huge support avail for it, I KNOW how crappy the OS/Hardware is sometimes.
Let me put it into perspective.
An average day at work:
SIMS changed (Due to burn-out, Initial Troubleshooting for Warranty, etc..)
-iPhones: 40-50
-Androids: 0-1
-Everything Else: 0-1
It also doesn't help that Apple feeds into the minds of it's technology-illiterate zombies that all problems with the iPhone is anyone but theirs. I've even had customers come to request their SIMS changed because "Their iPhone won't sync with iTunes" & that the "Genius" at Apple said that's the reason. (mind you, my reply was invaluable to her because i'm not a "Genius")
PS. sorry for ranting. But yeah, Verizon is AWESOME in rural areas & LTE coverage, but if you so happen to be where civilization is, they're almost identitcally equal.
That must be a pain sometimes. I did not say in it in the reveiw, but I like At&T better now than I have ever did before. To me verzion=Apple. I will let the viewers of my comment think for them selfs what that meens.
I was just wondering what the opinions of T-mobile was for the members here. I have been on a Radioshack/AT&T employee plan since 2006 and even though I quit in 2008 I have continued to be on this plan. It was amazing (2000 minutes, unlimited text, and unlimited data for $25 a month), however I just received notice today from my old AT&T rep that I will finally be taken off it. I am currently looking at switching to one of the major US carriers and am looking at the plan prices. I want to stick with an Android phone, so I'll need data. Verizon's cheapest plan looks to be $89.99/month for what I want (450 minutes, unlimited text, 2GB of data), with AT&T and Sprint's around $10 cheaper. I rarely use minutes (average of 250 a month), but I text quite a bit so I would want unlimited text. I also don't use data much. My max in the past year has been 134MB, however I know if I have a faster phone I will probably use data more. I was looking at T-mobile's plans and noticed they are drastically cheaper. $49.99/month for 500 minutes, unlimited text, and 2GB of data. Is their service much worse than AT&T, even though they are both GSM? I'd hate to switch to them and end up hating my service.
So in short, does anybody who has had AT&T and T-mobile notice a major difference between the two? Would I be better with sticking with Verizon or AT&T or are they all about equal nowadays?
Thanks in advance!
I recommend you buy an unlocked phone (hello Nexus!) and get a sim card from Straight Talk. They are a MVNO that runs on the AT&T network. I believe plans are $45.
It always depends on your area. For years I used Cingular(now At&t) and I had pretty decent service. About 5 years ago, T-Mobile was carrying a phone I wanted, so I decided to switch. (This was before I knew about the glory of unlocking ;P). T-Mobile's network was so horrible I never (read:NEVER) got service within a 2 mile radius of my home, and about the same at work.
I couldn't make a phone call with out it dropping, so I was forced to switch back to At&t. The guy at T-Mobile pulled up a "coverage map" and it claimed I should have the best service right in the area I needed it. So it was a bunch of bull if you ask me.
My suggestion has always been to talk to people who you know in the area of where you will be using your phone. I know some people from around my area who get great reception with T-Mobile and get awful service with At&t. I honestly have no idea how it happens, but it does.
Another route would be to get the phone to test (perhaps one of their pre-paid, no contract options?) and use it for a few days. If you are unhappy, simply return it. If you are returning it because of bad coverage they HAVE to take it back and give you a full refund.
I still think the asking people around the area is the best option. Perhaps you could give a general location, and ask people on the forums who are located near by to give you some of their opinions on their coverage? Its probably the best way to be sure, if you ask me.
T-Mobile was great to me in the East Bay area of northern California, until last November, when they instituted traffic-shaping policies that meant every single JPEG image on the internet was horribly compressed into an ugly mess of artifacts and banded gradients.
I really miss T-Mobile's HSPA+ speed. AT&T just can't quite get as fast. But I'll take a 20-25% slower connection that isn't adulterated over a faster one that's been tampered with.
I've had ok experiences with T-Mobile. When I lived in Atlanta there were many areas where I simply didn't get a signal, but that's probably due to to the terrain. As suggested you should probably ask others in the area where you will be how their coverage is. In regards to plans, I'm on a contracted unlimited talk/text, 2GB data for $90. I'll be modifying that at the soonest opportunity... I guess at least the phone itself was cheaper at the time :/
Thanks for info!
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I've had T-Mobile for a few years now, and I can't wait to leave this company. I'm currently in the process of jumping ship. I've driven from California to Tennessee, Tennessee to Iowa, Iowa to Michigan, and back again. I've never seen such garbage coverage from a cellular company. I have a 4G compatible phone, but I've only ever seen 4G when I fly through Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Their 3G coverage area is also terrible.
So, Cons are as follows:
4G: What 4G?
3G: Doesn't exist
2G: Covers the entire country with data speeds barely faster than dial-up, unless you live more than 25 miles outside a big city, or in North Dakota in general.
Reception: It's a well known fact that T-Mobile cannot maintain or even guarantee any sort of standard level of service indoors.
Pros:
Pricing: They are cheap for a reason.
"Unlimited" Data Plans: They "throttle" them after a certain amount of time, and it's throttling to less than 2G speeds. In fact, you should try being throttled while trying to drive across the country using Google maps...
Customer Service: The only pleasant part of my time with T-Mobile.
cdchris12 said:
I've had T-Mobile for a few years now, and I can't wait to leave this company. I'm currently in the process of jumping ship. I've driven from California to Tennessee, Tennessee to Iowa, Iowa to Michigan, and back again. I've never seen such garbage coverage from a cellular company. I have a 4G compatible phone, but I've only ever seen 4G when I fly through Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Their 3G coverage area is also terrible.
So, Cons are as follows:
4G: What 4G?
3G: Doesn't exist
2G: Covers the entire country with data speeds barely faster than dial-up, unless you live more than 25 miles outside a big city, or in North Dakota in general.
Reception: It's a well known fact that T-Mobile cannot maintain or even guarantee any sort of standard level of service indoors.
Pros:
Pricing: They are cheap for a reason.
"Unlimited" Data Plans: They "throttle" them after a certain amount of time, and it's throttling to less than 2G speeds. In fact, you should try being throttled while trying to drive across the country using Google maps...
Customer Service: The only pleasant part of my time with T-Mobile.
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Those may have been YOUR experiences and I'm not discounting that BUT....
I have FIVE LINES with T-Mobile
NEVER HAVE I HAD an issue with signal or coverage indoors.
Full bars in my home, excellent signal (68dBm-72dBm).
Very good coverage in Jersey City, NJ where I live.
My husband whom travels all over the tri-state area (NY,NJ,CT) doesn't have any reception issues either.
Fast HSPA+ (yes, it's a 3.5G technology) speeds depending on the device used. (I have the Amaze,,Sensation and, a Nexus S on T-Mobile ATM)
Wasn't me!! I didn't do it!
I completely disagree with cdchris12 however I always lived in area with good T-Mobile coverage and their throttle speed is fast enough to view website and use Google Maps. I do find that depends on the phone, usually older ones can have problem keeping data and gps in door, unless you're next to a window. With newer big phones with good antenna is not so much a problem.
I'd say get an unlocked phone and go with T-Mobile prepaid $50/month plan which give you unlimited everything and throttle to 2G after 2GB of usage. Unless you need roaming which isn't available with prepaid. I have family and friends who use ATT 3G and T-Mobile 3G network is always faster to me. In fact, with a Galaxy SII with dual HSPA+ antenna I get speed excess of 20mbps. Straight Talk has the same plan for $45 I believe and they go through T-Mobile network.
T-Mobile also allows you to tether which ATT don't, although recently I heard they changed that for people with $70 plan.
You might also find this useful: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=21604722&postcount=2
To get T-Mobile 3G you need a phone that support 1700/2100Mhz band.
In the East Bay area T-Mobile's HSPA+ speeds are really quite fast. I often saw 8-9Mbps downstream on my Galaxy Nexus before I switched to AT&T.
Unfortunately a fast internet connection is useless if your carrier alters all images on the internet so everything looks like dogpoo.
I have no idea what you are talking about, you might be accessing website through some kind of proxy like Opera Mini/Turbo. I know you will reply that that isn't the case, but I really can't think why that would be the case, but it has to be through some kind of proxy. I also notice some roms are set to connect to SimpleMobile by default instead of T-Mobile, which also causes problems. With Opera Mobile using desktop user agent, it looks exactly like my PC, and I've tried 5 different Android phones with T-Mobile. I haven't heard of millions other T-Mobile users complaining about degrading pictures quality from browser.
eksasol said:
I have no idea what you are talking about, you might be accessing website through some kind of proxy like Opera Mini/Turbo. I know you will reply that that isn't the case, but I really can't think why that would be the case, but it has to be through some kind of proxy. I also notice some roms are set to connect to SimpleMobile by default instead of T-Mobile, which also causes problems. With Opera Mobile using desktop user agent, it looks exactly like my PC, and I've tried 5 different Android phones with T-Mobile. I haven't heard of millions other T-Mobile users complaining about degrading pictures quality from browser.
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It's a proxy, but the proxy is on T-Mobile's end, not mine. It's a transparent proxy and it works exactly like the Opera Mini proxy, but I can't choose to turn it off. Connecting through a VPN would obviously fix the problem, but there's no easy way to force Android to auto-connect to a VPN every time I open the browser.
Trust me, I was thorough. The user agent wasn't an issue. The APN was set correctly. I spent over ten hours on the phone with T-Mobile's technical support and I hard reset the phones on both lines multiple times, restored to unrooted stock multiple times, and nothing fixed the issue. When I bought my Galaxy Nexus, I tested it before unlocking the bootloader and rooting it, and had the same exact issue.
Just to be absolutely sure, I even tested the issue on an iOS device (iPhone 3GS) and a WP7 device (HD7) with the same results--heavily compressed JPEG images when viewing any unencrypted page.
It no longer matters since I left T-Mobile for AT&T, which uses no such proxy.
Edit: I should note that I'm not the only one with this problem. Every person I know in the SF Bay area who uses T-Mobile has this problem. It may be automatic traffic shaping algorithms used on a tower-by-tower basis (which would explain why some people don't have the problem), but yeah, it's all over the place here. I tested demo phones in every T-Mobile store I could easily reach in the area--three in SF, two in Oakland, one in Berkeley and one in El Cerrito, and they all exhibit the same problem.
For example:
Actual quality, downloaded over wifi (180kb)
Very low quality, downloaded over T-Mobile 3G (55kb)
Yea, the compression thing on TMo is a well known thing. It doesn't bother me personally.
To throw in my experience with AT&T/T-Mobile here, I review phones as a side project. I've noted several differences in the two networks. Most are well known things that others have commented on. T-Mobile EASILY has better customer service. They always have. They pride themselves in their outstanding customer care. As long as you aren't being retarded or yelling at them, they will do everything possible to make you a happy customer.
As far as coverage goes, check the maps. AT&T has a bigger network footprint. T-Mobile has better network speeds. I get better speeds on T-Mobile 3G than on AT&T LTE. Obviously this is very dependent on location, but that's how it is here.
If you have coverage from T-Mobile and don't mind the picture compression, I strongly suggest it. I lived without 3G from T-Mobile for 2 and a half years while I was in the Army on base in Georgia. EDGE speeds are respectable from them. Their customer service and my ridiculously old $50 unlimited everything plan kept me going.
T-Mobile does throttle users once you reach your limits. I've never been throttled personally, but I've maxed out a test SGS2 just to see what it's like. You are still able to browse the web. No videos or streaming music, though. Speed tests put the throttling at around 70-110 Kbps. This is within EDGE speeds. Their unthrottled EDGE speeds are between 160-320 Kbps here. By comparison, GPRS speed drops down to about 20-40 Kbps.
My preference is for good customer service. T-Mobile has always been there for me, even when things got tight for me. I see no reason to leave them now. Look at the news just within the last 6 months. AT&T couldn't care less about its customers. It doesn't change anything until it gets sued.
cajunflavoredbob said:
Yea, the compression thing on TMo is a well known thing. It doesn't bother me personally.
To throw in my experience with AT&T/T-Mobile here, I review phones as a side project. I've noted several differences in the two networks. Most are well known things that others have commented on. T-Mobile EASILY has better customer service. They always have. They pride themselves in their outstanding customer care. As long as you aren't being retarded or yelling at them, they will do everything possible to make you a happy customer.
As far as coverage goes, check the maps. AT&T has a bigger network footprint. T-Mobile has better network speeds. I get better speeds on T-Mobile 3G than on AT&T LTE. Obviously this is very dependent on location, but that's how it is here.
If you have coverage from T-Mobile and don't mind the picture compression, I strongly suggest it. I lived without 3G from T-Mobile for 2 and a half years while I was in the Army on base in Georgia. EDGE speeds are respectable from them. Their customer service and my ridiculously old $50 unlimited everything plan kept me going.
T-Mobile does throttle users once you reach your limits. I've never been throttled personally, but I've maxed out a test SGS2 just to see what it's like. You are still able to browse the web. No videos or streaming music, though. Speed tests put the throttling at around 70-110 Kbps. This is within EDGE speeds. Their unthrottled EDGE speeds are between 160-320 Kbps here. By comparison, GPRS speed drops down to about 20-40 Kbps.
My preference is for good customer service. T-Mobile has always been there for me, even when things got tight for me. I see no reason to leave them now. Look at the news just within the last 6 months. AT&T couldn't care less about its customers. It doesn't change anything until it gets sued.
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This^^^^ %110. That being said, I've only experienced image compression in NYC, in a few areas (mostly midtown Manhattan). I live in Jersey City, NJ and haven't experienced it here. Even with image compression, images don't look THAT BAD....at least IMO.
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Babydoll25 said:
This^^^^ %110. That being said, I've only experienced image compression in NYC, in a few areas (mostly midtown Manhattan). I live in Jersey City, NJ and haven't experienced it here. Even with image compression, images don't look THAT BAD....at least IMO.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk
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For me, they looked so bad I was willing to pay $40 more a month to AT&T in order to make it go away permanently. The other line on my account is used by my partner, and she would frequently read manga raws on her phone. When the image compression started, the Japanese characters in the raw manga scans became totally illegible. She was, to put it mildly, rather upset. This is probably 90% of why she owns a smartphone and is willing to pay for it, so I'm sure you can see the issue here.
For me it was an aesthetic issue, but for her it was a functionality issue. In any case, we pay a little more a month, but we also get more--and I personally prefer AT&T's method of handling data. At least on AT&T if I want more than 3GB a month I can pay to get extra GBs. On T-Mobile, you'd get throttled regardless and EDGE in the East Bay is completely unusable.
I would have stayed with T-Mobile had I been able to figure out how to automatically log into a VPN every time I opened an app that pulled image assets from the web (the browser, the Android Market, etc). Unfortunately, the only solution I found also wakelocked the phone permanently, preventing it from sleeping and killing any semblance of good battery life.
synaesthetic said:
For me, they looked so bad I was willing to pay $40 more a month to AT&T in order to make it go away permanently. The other line on my account is used by my partner, and she would frequently read manga raws on her phone. When the image compression started, the Japanese characters in the raw manga scans became totally illegible. She was, to put it mildly, rather upset. This is probably 90% of why she owns a smartphone and is willing to pay for it, so I'm sure you can see the issue here.
For me it was an aesthetic issue, but for her it was a functionality issue. In any case, we pay a little more a month, but we also get more--and I personally prefer AT&T's method of handling data. At least on AT&T if I want more than 3GB a month I can pay to get extra GBs. On T-Mobile, you'd get throttled regardless and EDGE in the East Bay is completely unusable.
I would have stayed with T-Mobile had I been able to figure out how to automatically log into a VPN every time I opened an app that pulled image assets from the web (the browser, the Android Market, etc). Unfortunately, the only solution I found also wakelocked the phone permanently, preventing it from sleeping and killing any semblance of good battery life.
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I think that's the main problem with the way TMo handles it. It's not consistent. It seems to be worse based on location and usage. More compression in more populated areas or something. For me, I can tell that the images are compressed if I zoom in inside a webpage, but otherwise, it's business as usual.
Same with the data speeds. A lot of people say that it drops to regular GPRS speeds when they get throttled. I only tested it the one time with that review unit SGS2, but it wasn't that bad. 100Kbps is fine for web browsing. The problem seems to be that it's all very much a "your mileage may vary" situation.
AT&T is evil, but at least they are consistent.
They're all evil. We simply pick the lesser evil in any given location.
I'm kind of surprised that nobody's mentioned T-Mobile's Wifi Calling. It allows you to get service anywhere that has a Wifi network available, and you can do everything as normal (Call, text, internet) through your plan. I use it everyday, and I think it's great.
theholyfork said:
I'm kind of surprised that nobody's mentioned T-Mobile's Wifi Calling. It allows you to get service anywhere that has a Wifi network available, and you can do everything as normal (Call, text, internet) through your plan. I use it everyday, and I think it's great.
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It's nice to have, but kind of crappy that it still counts against you, even though you aren't using their towers...