AT&T, Verizon Fight Over 'Most Reliable' 3G Network Claim

AT&T will lose this for sure! instead of wasting money in lawsuits why don't just invest it in their towers/network? that would be the best way to fight them.

After I tried every single company, only verizon does not drop your call on the highway or while you crossing a bridge, so good luck in that fight at&t.

Now its just matter of time for VZW to release the iphone and LTE network....then at&t will go downhill.

AT&T is on shaky grounds here. Independent testing backs Verizon. They aren't going to win in court based on their own internal metrics.

While ATT is making a killing off of expensive iPhone pricing and the Apple fankids who pay those prices, it seems it's cheaper and easier to just file a lawsuit.

Reliability is subjective and hardly quantifiable. This is a waste of tax dollars.

V: I'm more reliable!
A: Uh-uh! I'm more reliable!
V: MOM! Tell A that I'm more reliable!
A: No, Mom! Tell V that I'M more reliable!

Fucking stupid.

This is the best they can do???

yes!

Wasn't Sprint found to be the most reliable in the PC World test?...

We can't/won't compete so we'll sue instead.

Thankfully, the t-mobile 3g network in my area is very stable. I get 1100/400 just about all the time. (Even with 1-2 bars!) Only occasionally do i get slower, but i have to be in downtown chicago or other area like that. Everywhere else, it flys. (Tested using my sony ericsson tm506, via usb, using the unlimited $5.99 data plan.) Not getting rid of that data plan anytime soon! (I rarely tether. I occasionally use streaming audio or orb at work.)

Same thing in the Twin Cities area. T-Mobile's 3G isn't nearly as widespread as the other carriers, but it is very reliable in the areas it is offered.

What now follows is an insane amount of messages along the lines of, "Verizon rules and AT&T sucks" and AT&T works fine for me where I live" and "T-Mobile is the best" and blah blah blah blabla bla ak bpoajnbpldoiuhwertfg

You have been warned.

"Verizon rules and AT&T sucks" 'nuff said.

Welcome to the internet.

You're putting nails in your own coffin...lose this case and Verizon is taking it straight to Apple and every tech website they can call to mind, in preparation for the coming of 2010....

AT&T, you should have just let it go.

Now, it's your ass on the line.

AT&T is 77% reliable in Chicago? I have to say it has to be more around 50%. Myself and 2 of my other friends had AT&T and none of us could get even a cell phone signal in our apartements. We lived in different parts of the city. Don't even get me started with my friend cursing with constant dropped calls at the bars on the weekends.

Thankfully I'm now with Verizon. Signal is great, 3G network is great, and I love watching streaming videos on my phone on the train.

Again I have said this before - different cell phones have different reception. My POS Cingular phone got great reception everywhere my WM devices have horrible reception. Pretty much everywhere outside I get good if not great reception with AT&T. Indoors - not so much. But, if a carrier's signal can pierce concrete and steel...I think you should be more concerned about what it's doing to your head than making that call :P.

On the note of watching streaming videos - how long do you watch them for? They have to really drain the battery. I know on my WM device if I start doing something network intensive it drains the battery like water.

Well you're right it's the phone, so I guess naturally the arguement is that AT&T has a wide selection of worthless phones too. We all had different phones, and my friend still has the iPhone. He's impartial about it now, since it's somewhat improved and all he does is text now. But boy does that POS suck for phone calls still.

I probably watch streaming videos a total of 1hr per day during my commute to and from work on the train. It doesn't drain my battery that badly. I have the LG Dare and it has a pretty decent battery life. To start the day I'll have 4 full battery bars and by the end of the night I'll usually have 3, 2 if I'm on the phone talking to the GF for a while.

As Internet centric as the iPhone? Really their is none!

Anyone using a Blackberry is doing email. Anyone using Windows Mobile is clueless re: surfing the net (majority) as it's not a great experience.

The iPhone is all about Internet so everyone and their mom is sucking their bandwidth. They need LTE to get out the door fast to handle this demand.

Would Verizon be in the same position ... they might just be!

I might consider the iPhone to be media-centric, albeit with revolutionary copy and paste abilities, but what are people doing with their iPhones over the internet that separates it from a BlackBerry, Nokia, LG, or Samsung?

<French Castle Guard from Monty Python's Holy Grail>The user interface, it's very nice-a. </French Castle Guard from Monty Python's Holy Grail> But I don't think it's as much the device as it is the particular customer base that causes such a disruption in At&T's network.

They *might* be. They *might not* be.
There are other internet-centric phones. Android devices actually have more app downloads per device, and their market share is very rapidly increasing. Being directly tied to Gmail, and Google Calendar, plus the ability to multi-task with the many useful apps can make it even MORE internet-centric than the iPhone (think streaming imeem or shoutcast internet radio while browsing the web or writing up emails).

Sprint > Verizon AND AT&T

lol, u are really misinformed buddy. Sprint got cheaper plans, but they're not as reliable and don't have as good coverage as VZW.

Sprint's 3G network is just as good as as VZW. The PCworld tests actually show that they are the most reliable 3G network. We're talking about data here.

Why do ATT, VZ, FON & T-Mo all charge 60 bucks for 5 gigs of data, while Cricket Wireless charges 40 dollars for unlimited?

Cricket Broadband Internet

* No Signed contracts
* No Credit Checks
* No Cables

With unlimited broadband access you can email, surf and download from your desktop or laptop anywhere in Cricket Broadband's coverage areas.

Look closer. That $40 unlimited is limited to 5GB too. See the fine print under Important Information: »www.mycricket.com/cricke ··· search=0

I have sources that say Sprint will come out in with a $69.99 UNLIMITED, no cap data plan sometime around august.

FYI, T-Mobile's cap is 10gigs, and it's only a soft cap, no overages.

FYI Cricket Wireless has a 5GB cap for there unlimited LOL!

LOL, joey's an idiot.

Verizon and AT&T rents out their special access lines to other companies in the wireless data market. As many of these companies have complained about to Congress, the rates on these lines are insanely marked up. The FCC has utterly failed to regulate the prices VZ and ATT charged during the Bush years, and now these companies are hoping the new FCC will look at the issue again.

If regulation is properly enforced, the prices of smaller carriers will come down significantly.

the newer "3g" that AT&T is using is based off of W-CDMA.
I'm not a fan of GSM based networks.

If AT&T's coverage for this newer "3g" is anything like the spotty GSM based coverage, I'm not surprised at all that it's less reliable than Verizon's or Sprint's (and many many others... »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li ··· roviders).

what?
UMTS 3g (what GSM providers use) is inherently W-CDMA. ATT has been using W-CDMA/UMTS 3g from the beginning. It's also what T-Mobile is using.

W-CDMA UMTS != CDMA2000.
»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umts
"The name UMTS, introduced by ETSI, is usually used in Europe. Outside of Europe, the system is also known by other names such as FOMA or W-CDMA. In marketing, it is often just referred to as 3G."

I am sure different cellphones cause the user to have a different reception.

Besides, how dumb must AT&T be to say they are the most reliable provider in the nation and even try to fight it in court? Just change it to "One of the fastest" and call it a day. As said, use that damn money on improving your reliability instead.

I think it's more like, they have these lawyers they pay full-time, and just want them to have something to do rather than laze around all day.

on what is hooked up at the base station. You may be getting 7 Mbps through the air, but if the base station has a T1 to AT&T's backbone then 1.5 Mbps is the best you can do, presuming your cell phone is the only one utilizing the bandwidth. It is similar to cable with respect to #users vs. bandwidth availability tradeoff. Even if the line to AT&T's backbone is a T3 or greater, you still are limited to how any users are accessing that cell site at any one time.

How does AT&T prioritize traffic? another question. Business connections with fixed IP addresses/netblocks will tend to have priority over consumer bandwidth usage simply due to the fact that they are paying MUCH more (on the order of $10-$30/Mbit) for bandwidth then the cell phone users. Also AT&T has trouble finding their backbone connections (even with a map and flashlight ) that i would also suspect poor routing as well.

Lot's of variables. My Sprint PDA internet connection speeds are reasonable and more importantly both latency and connectivity are excellent. My PDA maintains a link to my Exchange server via ActiveSync at all times and rarely goes down. Both Sprint and Verizon have a pretty good clue on how to route traffic and have a much more reliable backbone than does AT&T IMO. When testing the IPhone last summer it had trouble maintaining speed and connectivity. Have things improved since? From posts here as well as friends who have iPhone (like phone, but AT&T service terrible) I would say that AT&T still has some work to do to upgrade/improve cell towers and backhaul bandwidth.

Verizon = Tastes Great-----------------------ATT = Less Filling

That reliability != speed.

Reliability = The probability that a component part, equipment, or system will satisfactorily perform its intended function under given circumstances, such as environmental conditions, limitations as to operating time, and frequency and thoroughness of maintenance for a specified period of time.

speed = Swiftness of action.
1. The act of moving rapidly.
2. The state of being in rapid motion; rapidity.

So Verizon's claim of "Most Reliable" may perfectly well be true and AT&T's claim of speed as a reliability factor just goes to show how ignorant AT&T has gotten.

I have had both AT&T and Verzion. The big V blows the Death Star away when it comes to both Reliability and Speed hands down.

Seriously, does anyone here, no matter who your carrier is, who you work for, ETC buy AT&T's argument that speed is a gating factor for reliability? Please, what good is a faster speed if you can't get on the freaking network to begin with. Don't even make me add that if you look at 3 different tests that have been run, AT&T doesn't even have the overall fastest network, so that is a double FAIL. If you want to judge it on the "theoretical" HSDPA speeds they are claiming, then bring forth a real device that can actually reproduce that speed with normal user traffic in everyday life. Not gonna happen. Why? Because it doesn't exist! AT&T, give it up you are just making yourself look worse. If you really want something to brag about, get off your duff and improve your network. The Iphone won't support your company forever.

I'm no big fan of AT&T but LOL at all of you who think Verizon would be nirvana for the iPhone. They are both sides of the same coin - and no one knows how the experience would be on Verizon not having seem them take on the load of iPhone users on their infrastructure. Stop kidding yourselves everyone - this is Verizon we're talking about. Yes, Verizon - the company that has somewhere along the line (like AT&T) has managed to severely piss off each and every one of us at some point for some reason.

AT&T had a 3G network here. Of course, it's everywhere BUT where I am located. :-(

Hopefully they move it to the 850 mhz in your area!, it should be there soon.