Best Wireless Network For Data

[PricklyPete]

So I'm going to be picking up a data card for my wife's business. She needs to be able to get online and work from just about anywhere in the states. Reliability is more important to us then speed. My knee-jerk reaction was to go with Verizon as I had a pretty good experience with one a couple of years back. I have also read a recent PCWorld article showing that AT&T has really bounced back in reliability and speeds. We have AT&T for our iPhones and I have been satisfied enough...but we want this thing to be available in as many places as possible and I fear AT&T just won't have the reliability. Opinions?

 

[vshah]

does she know where she will be traveling? check coverage maps if so. if not, just go with verizon - i doubt there's anywhere at&t has signal but verizon doesn't.

 

[Lotheron]

They are most likely equally reliable when you're talking the entire map of the US. VZW certainly has a bigger 3G footprint, but ATT has just as big if not bigger EDGE network which is faster than VZWs 1xRTT data.

End the end, it depends on where you go and which one you want to give your money to.

 

[ViviTheMage]

check coverage for carriers, see if that is where she will be often. Not every carrier covers everything.

why not just tether with your iphones?

 

[PricklyPete]

does she know where she will be traveling? check coverage maps if so. if not, just go with verizon - i doubt there's anywhere at&t has signal but verizon doesn't.

We travel a good bit (for my work and for just pleasure). I've checked AT&T maps and they seem to cover everywhere I can imagine she will need it...but my fear is just that AT&T will not work in some of those out of the way places we'd go (mountains, Cape Hatteras, etc). From a phone reception standpoint it has always appeared that Verizon has had better coverage in out of the way places...but I don't know if this really translates into data access and whether this has really changed over the years and AT&T has caught up in this respect.

 

[PricklyPete]

check coverage for carriers, see if that is where she will be often. Not every carrier covers everything.

why not just tether with your iphones?

Do I have to jailbreak the iphone to do so? How easy is it to setup and does it work well?

 

[ViviTheMage]

Do I have to jailbreak the iphone to do so? How easy is it to setup and does it work well?

I think it's a carrier file change, but i'd read around on macrumers if you wanted to actually do it.

 

[Krazy4Real]

I'd go with Verizon.

 

[Quasmo]

If Clear was everywhere you could go with that. If you want to make sure you get coverage everywhere get Verizon hands down.

 

[Fritzo]

I'm an expert in this field

Verizon has the most coverage nationwide---you'll be much happier on their network. Their CMDA band also has good building penetration, so you won't get dropped off when indoors.

Sprint also uses CMDA on a similar frequency, but they don't have nearly as many towers as Verizon, so coverage will be spotty. If she's going to be in an area with good Sprint coverage, it may be the best choice as the have the best data plans.

ATT- A total waste of time. They do have the fastest network---but if you can only use the damn thing while standing on the roof of the tallest building in town, what good is it? Their GSM frequency has very poor penetration ability, so you'll get a lot of drops indoors and around tall buildings. You only tend to have coverage in large cities or around major interstates.

T-Mobile- About the same as ATT. They DO have operational 4G networks in a few select cities (14mbit connects!), but again the coverage is so spotty, why even bother.

 

[AMDZen]

Do I have to jailbreak the iphone to do so? How easy is it to setup and does it work well?

Yes you have to jailbreak, once you do it its simple enough. There are numerous apps through Cydia that you can tether through. I recommend Howardforums.

Jailbreaking is also very easy and people fear it for no reason. As long as you don't have the newest 3.1.2 fw that is. There is no way to brick an iPhone, as long as you know how to get it back into DFU mode if you have issues.

 

[AMDZen]

I'm an expert in this field
ATT- A total waste of time. They do have the fastest network---but if you can only use the damn thing while standing on the roof of the tallest building in town, what good is it? Their GSM frequency has very poor penetration ability, so you'll get a lot of drops indoors and around tall buildings. You only tend to have coverage in large cities or around major interstates.

This is simply not true, maybe you have had bad experiences but CDMA and GSM do not differ in their "building penetration abilities".

It depends on where the cell is and the strength of it relative to the area you're in.

 

[PricklyPete]

Thanks for the input guys. While the tethering sounds nice on the iphone...network reliability is paramount...so I think I'm going to go with Verizon and see how it pans out. My experience with a Verizon data card was very good a couple of years ago and based on the responses here...sounds like they are still the ones to go with.

 

[pm]

I'm an expert in this field

Verizon has the most coverage nationwide---you'll be much happier on their network. Their CMDA band also has good building penetration, so you won't get dropped off when indoors.

Sprint also uses CMDA on a similar frequency, but they don't have nearly as many towers as Verizon, so coverage will be spotty. If she's going to be in an area with good Sprint coverage, it may be the best choice as the have the best data plans.

ATT- A total waste of time. They do have the fastest network---but if you can only use the damn thing while standing on the roof of the tallest building in town, what good is it? Their GSM frequency has very poor penetration ability, so you'll get a lot of drops indoors and around tall buildings. You only tend to have coverage in large cities or around major interstates.

T-Mobile- About the same as ATT. They DO have operational 4G networks in a few select cities (14mbit connects!), but again the coverage is so spotty, why even bother.

While I agree with the conclusion - Verizon is best, followed by AT&T and Sprint, with T-Mobile at the bottom - I don't agree with the comments.

My parents have both AT&T and Verizon data cards and use both and I do not at all agree with the idea that AT&T is "a total waste of time." That was true as recently as three years ago, but particularly in the last year, their 3G network has massively expanded and you can see this when you use their service. I travel a bit with my parents and I talked to my dad about why they pay (a lot!) for both services and he said iin their house, Verizon is clearly faster, but when they are in their house in the mountains, there is no Verizon service, but AT&T has 3G. My father's impression as of about 2 weeks ago was basically that Verizon has better data coverage nationwide, but AT&T is quite a bit faster when you have 3G with them. When you are in a major city - or even a not so major city - they are both more or less the same, but when you head out on the road and are up in Idaho, or Montana in some city of roughly 50,000, then it's often a toss up nowadays, and often AT&T is faster. And then he said when you are outside of the cities, Verizon has service when AT&T doesn't.

 

[Fritzo]

This is simply not true, maybe you have had bad experiences but CDMA and GSM do not differ in their "building penetration abilities".

It depends on where the cell is and the strength of it relative to the area you're in.

Yes, it is true. In fact, they recently started broadcasting on a new band to increase penetration ability. They started the upgrade in New York (it made big news on the tech lines), and it's slowly supposed to start to roll out to other areas.

 

[dguy6789]

T-Mobile is projected to have better coverage nationwide than everyone except Verizon within a year or two. They are also going to have 3G service that is nearly as fast as 4G.(Meaning you can get amazing data speeds on current devices, no need to buy a new 4G phone) T-Mobile's unlimited minutes/texts/internet/everything plan is $70 per month cheaper than AT&T and Verizon's, and $20 cheaper per month than Sprint's. T-Mobile is the only company to charge you less per month when you do a contract-free plan. You can talk on the phone and use the internet/gps/anything at the same time, can't do that on Verizon.

My point is that T-Mobile isn't even close to as bad as some people are saying, especially not compared to something like AT&T. Their coverage is growing insanely fast, but it's not up there yet(The maps on their website aren't even up to date. I've gotten 3G in places where it says there is no coverage). If you're in a location that gets good T-Mobile coverage, they are probably the best company to go with.

 

[hanoverphist]

And then he said when you are outside of the cities, Verizon has service when AT&T doesn't.

yup. i took my kids camping up in the mountains in northern az. miles from anything, the kids were able to get signal on their phones, and when i checked mine i had internet. i have a usb 3g modem for work and i get signal in some pretty remote parts of az. it worked all over southern cali too when i was visiting.

 

[Fox5]

T-Mobile is projected to have better coverage nationwide than everyone except Verizon within a year or two. They are also going to have 3G service that is nearly as fast as 4G.(Meaning you can get amazing data speeds on current devices, no need to buy a new 4G phone) T-Mobile's unlimited minutes/texts/internet/everything plan is $70 per month cheaper than AT&T and Verizon's, and $20 cheaper per month than Sprint's. T-Mobile is the only company to charge you less per month when you do a contract-free plan. You can talk on the phone and use the internet/gps/anything at the same time, can't do that on Verizon.

My point is that T-Mobile isn't even close to as bad as some people are saying, especially not compared to something like AT&T. Their coverage is growing insanely fast, but it's not up there yet(The maps on their website aren't even up to date. I've gotten 3G in places where it says there is no coverage). If you're in a location that gets good T-Mobile coverage, they are probably the best company to go with.

Tmobile focuses on population centers and highways. If you're within 50 miles of a city or 10 miles of a highway, go with tmobile, otherwise their coverage is nearly nonexistent. Just take a look at their online coverage map, they hit most of the US population, but they're not anywhere near most of the US landmass.

 

[theblackbox]

i've found verizon to do the best all over the whole US (well except for oregon and washington, haven't been there yet).
verizon is good about throwing cell towers in the middle of nowhere. there is really good 3g reception on the western slope, and with at&t you either have to be on high ground near gunnison or close to the front range for good reception if any.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Yes, it is true. In fact, they recently started broadcasting on a new band to increase penetration ability. They started the upgrade in New York (it made big news on the tech lines), and it's slowly supposed to start to roll out to other areas.

it's really just frequencies. 850mhz which ATT is rolling out has far better building penetration. I've had experiences with 2G T-Mo and ATT. Both get 5 bars outside, but indoors, the ATT dropped to 4, while T-Mo would slip from 0-1 bars to out of coverage all the time...

 

[Fritzo]

While I agree with the conclusion - Verizon is best, followed by AT&T and Sprint, with T-Mobile at the bottom - I don't agree with the comments.

My parents have both AT&T and Verizon data cards and use both and I do not at all agree with the idea that AT&T is "a total waste of time." That was true as recently as three years ago, but particularly in the last year, their 3G network has massively expanded and you can see this when you use their service. I travel a bit with my parents and I talked to my dad about why they pay (a lot!) for both services and he said iin their house, Verizon is clearly faster, but when they are in their house in the mountains, there is no Verizon service, but AT&T has 3G. My father's impression as of about 2 weeks ago was basically that Verizon has better data coverage nationwide, but AT&T is quite a bit faster when you have 3G with them. When you are in a major city - or even a not so major city - they are both more or less the same, but when you head out on the road and are up in Idaho, or Montana in some city of roughly 50,000, then it's often a toss up nowadays, and often AT&T is faster. And then he said when you are outside of the cities, Verizon has service when AT&T doesn't.

We resell wireless connections from all 4 carriers nationwide, and AT&T and T-Mobile's 52% refund rate in the last year is making us considering dropping them. ATT will work fine in a major metro area, but go outside of city limits, enter a cinder block building, go in a basement, or even stray away from a highway, and you're either on a bearly usable 2G connection, or no connection at all.

Verizon and Sprint have a refund rate of under 15%, and seem to work nearly everywhere. The problems spots for them are mostly the plains states (OK, TX, MT, ND, SD), but the sparse population in many areas of those states there makes that understandable. Sprint's downfall is it just doesn't have a physical presence everywhere.

I'm actually posting this from a tethered Verizon cell phone in a sub basement server room at the moment

 

[YoungGun21]

This is simply not true, maybe you have had bad experiences but CDMA and GSM do not differ in their "building penetration abilities".

It depends on where the cell is and the strength of it relative to the area you're in.

Actually it is true, and it is one of the reasons Verizon chose not to use GSM.

 

[ElFenix]

T-Mobile- About the same as ATT. They DO have operational 4G networks in a few select cities (14mbit connects!), but again the coverage is so spotty, why even bother.

HSPA+ is not 4G. it isn't even in the running for 4G.

Actually it is true, and it is one of the reasons Verizon chose not to use GSM.

the building penetration is due to the frequency, so the original statement of their GSM frequency having building penetration issues is true. verizon is currently using cdma2000/evdo because it's a cheap upgrade from cdmaOne, which was cheaper than tdma 2G GSM.

of the 3G GSM techs, EDGE uses a tdma channel, while HSPA uses a cdma channel.

 

[Fritzo]

T-Mobile is projected to have better coverage nationwide than everyone except Verizon within a year or two. They are also going to have 3G service that is nearly as fast as 4G.(Meaning you can get amazing data speeds on current devices, no need to buy a new 4G phone) T-Mobile's unlimited minutes/texts/internet/everything plan is $70 per month cheaper than AT&T and Verizon's, and $20 cheaper per month than Sprint's. T-Mobile is the only company to charge you less per month when you do a contract-free plan. You can talk on the phone and use the internet/gps/anything at the same time, can't do that on Verizon.

My point is that T-Mobile isn't even close to as bad as some people are saying, especially not compared to something like AT&T. Their coverage is growing insanely fast, but it's not up there yet(The maps on their website aren't even up to date. I've gotten 3G in places where it says there is no coverage). If you're in a location that gets good T-Mobile coverage, they are probably the best company to go with.

Dude, we sell the stuff in 48 states. T-Mobile is not a data good carrier in it's current state (we don't deal in cell phones). When you have 1 out of 2 customers returning their equipment you know something's wrong. They're going to have to make some REALLY big improvements if they want to compete.

 

[dguy6789]

Dude, we sell the stuff in 48 states. T-Mobile is not a data good carrier in it's current state (we don't deal in cell phones). When you have 1 out of 2 customers returning their equipment you know something's wrong. They're going to have to make some REALLY big improvements if they want to compete.

It's all about location. I don't imagine that people would be happy with T-Mobile if they were using T-Mobile in an area that they didn't have good coverage. There definitely are no shortage of areas with poor coverage at the moment. I wouldn't suggest T-Mobile to those people yet. But there are also cities that have fantastic unrelenting coverage as well. T-Mobile is supposed to be revamping and expanding their network coverage pretty heavily in the near future.