Rileybiz

By John Riley

You have to hand it to Verizon… their marketing has been very successful promoting their network coverage at the expense of
AT&T. You have probably heard stories as I have, that with AT&T you can expect more dropped calls. Even the most recent Consumer Reports says Verizon offers the best service.

Well, things are often not what they seem. Today’s Sunday New York Times article (Dec13,2009), proves the point. Two third party services that run extensive network tests for major cell phone carriers have shared some of their findings that show AT&T clearly superior in performance to Verizon. According to the Times, neither AT&T nor Verizon would comment on the story.

“The results place AT&T data network not just on top, but well ahead of everyone else” says Randall Stross who wrote the article. He goes on to point out Global Wireless, a network test company, found AT&T’s data throughput is 40 to 50 percent higher than the competition including Verizon. AT&T is one of their clients.

Root Wirless is another network test firm that places AT&T performance head and shoulders above Verizon. Root Wireless ran 4.7 million tests on smartphones for each of four major carriers spread across seven metropolitan areas: Dallas, LA/Orange County, New York, Seattle/Tacoma, San Francisco bay area and Washington. Stross said “In every market, AT&T had faster average download speeds and had signal strength of 75 percent or better more frequently than did Verizon.”

The Times story went on to say, “AT&T’s achievement is all the more remarkable considering the sudden jump in the volume of mobile phone data the network has had to handle with the introduction of the iPhone 3G in 2008: approximately 4,000 percent. AT&T has the most number next-generation smartphones, with full browsers and built-in video players.”

Curiously, AT&T has still not released all this performance data, although they are starting to advertise their market coverage in advertising. Sometimes things are just not what they seem.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am an AT&T subscriber.