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How does Verizon LTE compare to AT&T 4G?

Don Vito Corleone

Don Vito Corleone

Elite
I currently have an iPhone 4 on AT&T. I intend to get an iPhone 5.

My firm pays for my service and I can at least potentially move to Verizon, but it will be somewhat more of a hassle for administrative reasons. I have previously used Verizon as a voice carrier and was happy with the coverage and service. I live in Minneapolis, where Verizon has LTE service but AT&T only has 4G (though supposedly LTE is coming soon). Cost is not really an issue because the firm is paying. I kind of like the ability (offered by AT&T but not VZ) to do simultaneous voice and data, but it's not a HUGE deal to me, and less significant than overall speed.

Can anyone give me real-world input on how dramatically faster Verizon LTE would be relative to AT&T 4G? I am weighing whether the hassle of switching carriers is worthwhile, and it's hard to get a clear sense of this difference because most of the available information is biased marketing materials by one carrier or the other.

Thanks!
 
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I do not have actual experience but from my research AT&T is usually faster on lte. Verizon lte is faster than AT&T 4g though and Verizon usually has better coverage. I have had AT&T for a while now but only 3G. I plan to try Verizon for a while. One of my buddies has a razr max on Verizon lte and its way faster than my iPhone 4 on AT&T 3G. My brother has and wife have the 4s4g on AT&T but do not notice much of a gain if any over 3G.
It's a tough call, but impersonally plan to go verizon
 
I had a Thunderbolt last year when LTE was just rolling out for VZ, so network was not congested, and I'd average 20-25mbs. Good days, I'd hit 30-40, but that was not the norm at all. On my ATT IP5 here, I get 60-65 constantly, with 20 up.

Your milage may vary, but I feel like ATT is better so far. It might change as more and more LTE phones hit the market, but for now, it's great.
 
Hmm. Sounds like AT&T LTE will be rolled out fairly soon locally, and it should be better than Verizon LTE. It would be a lot less hassle for me to just stay with AT&T (mostly because, for administrative reasons that are boring to explain, it would be a pain to switch). I think this weekend I'll go to the Apple store and weigh black vs. white phones, then just have my assistant order me an AT&T phone on Monday.
 
I had a 4S on AT&T, and I switched to a 5 on Verizon. AT&T's "4G" really isn't that great. It's available in my area, but the best speed that I ever got was 4Mbps with 5 bars. I ran a Speedtest on Verizon earlier and I got 4Mbps... with 2 bars in a building. If I ran that test on AT&T with my 4S, I would get .2Mbps. No, that decimal point is not a typo.

Although, I have noticed that there seems to be this weird lag for LTE to actually "kick in". I'm not sure what exactly it is, but it's like things don't start transferring immediately. For example, one time it took me about 10-15 seconds to find a server on Speedtest... another time, it took a 2-3 seconds. I went to load these forums, and it sat there for a bit on a blank page, but once it "kicked in", it was fast sailing from then on.

EDIT:

Oh, and Verizon with 5 bars is ~20Mbps / 12Mbps with ~50ms ping. AT&T's best ping was around 180ms.
 
Aikouka said:
I had a 4S on AT&T, and I switched to a 5 on Verizon. AT&T's "4G" really isn't that great. It's available in my area, but the best speed that I ever got was 4Mbps with 5 bars. I ran a Speedtest on Verizon earlier and I got 4Mbps... with 2 bars in a building. If I ran that test on AT&T with my 4S, I would get .2Mbps. No, that decimal point is not a typo.

Although, I have noticed that there seems to be this weird lag for LTE to actually "kick in". I'm not sure what exactly it is, but it's like things don't start transferring immediately. For example, one time it took me about 10-15 seconds to find a server on Speedtest... another time, it took a 2-3 seconds. I went to load these forums, and it sat there for a bit on a blank page, but once it "kicked in", it was fast sailing from then on.

EDIT:

Oh, and Verizon with 5 bars is ~20Mbps / 12Mbps with ~50ms ping. AT&T's best ping was around 180ms.
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4S is NOT 4G, it's HSPA+. Big difference. Just because it says 4G doesn't mean it is. Even on ATT LTE devices it's only truly 4G when the letters "LTE" are displayed under the 4G icon. That is why I like my custom rom (GS3) as it will display an icon for the service, i.e. EDGE, 3G, H+, and 4G.
I've clocked 72/23 (down/up) in Tyson's Corner (Northern VA) on this phone, pings run anywhere from mid 40s to just under 100 using speedtest.net.
 
I'm from Louisiana and ATT is faster compared to Verizon but Verizon 4G has much better coverage. I did speed test with a friend and ATT is way faster but we noticed that I get much better coverage. Speed test came out to be about 60mb dl for him and 20mb down for me but we tested it in different cities so that might be a factor.
 
I find that Verizon 3G is worse than ATT 4G (really it is 3G but they call it 4G to confuse people) and ATT LTE (true 4G) is better than Verizon 4G. However ATT does not have the LTE coverage that Verizon has so if you are not covered you will need to wait; apparently ATT is supposed to have all of its 3G areas covered with LTE by the end of 2013.
 
Eh, I'm not sure if I would believe that AT&T will have that sort of LTE spread in about a year. Not even Verizon has that spread now, and Verizon has nearly 10x the LTE markets compared to AT&T. I saw that AT&T would only just be adding LTE to one city in Alabama by the end of 2012, and that's what made me give up.

If I get a reason to switch back to AT&T, I'll switch back. To my knowledge, there's nothing to hamper carrier jumpers, and it's actually cheaper if you do it every year. 😛
 
Yeah AT&T LTE coverage is basically non-existent. Even in major cities that supposedly have it, it's not available in most places. Like in all of DC, I can get it in this one small corner of my living room. Everywhere else in the city it's very inconsistent. AT&T in general seems super slow at rolling out new standards.
 
Hm, I have to say that while Verizon's LTE spanks AT&T's HSPA+ like the red-headed step-child that it is, AT&T definitely seems to have some better coverage in areas that I visited today. One thing I like doing with my phone is checking prices against Amazon (you can easily scan). Verizon had pretty much no service on one entire side of Target, and luckily, it wasn't the side where electronics is. Got me a Blu-Ray at a sub-Amazon price! 😉
 
Verizon's LTE is good, it doesn't put up as high of numbers as the AT&T LTE does but Verizon has more LTE devices in more places. When LTE devices are more prolific you'll see similar speeds. I think Verizon has much more money and ability to improve their LTE vs AT&T.

As far as this generation goes, get the one with the best coverage for you.
 
Ugh - I found out today that my partner's wife somehow used my upgrade eligibility at some point (we are all on a shared corporate account), so I am not eligible for an upgrade until January. Really pisses me off. I'm not even sure how she did it - I shouldn't have been eligible until July and she apparently used it more than a year and a half ago.

Ah well - at least I'll have the benefit of greater certainty regarding which provider to use once I can upgrade.
 
phexac said:
Yeah AT&T LTE coverage is basically non-existent. Even in major cities that supposedly have it, it's not available in most places. Like in all of DC, I can get it in this one small corner of my living room. Everywhere else in the city it's very inconsistent. AT&T in general seems super slow at rolling out new standards.
Click to expand...

You're unlucky, AT&T LTE has a very large radius in the greater Boston area and is absolutely amazing. 1 bar is still faster than HSPA+ AT&T.
 
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