ATT under pressure from Sprint for cellular speed

AT&T claimed the title of the fastest 3G network in the US today through a new study that also showed its absolute control coming to an end. The iPhone carrier had both the highest average download speed, at 1.79Mbps, as well as the highest maximum speed (2.75Mbps). The HSPA network had the best performance in six of the 18 different cities covered by PCMag, including the surprise of San Francisco.

It wasn't the absolute fastest cellular network of any kind, as Sprint's WiMAX 4G network was appropriately faster at 2.11Mbps on average and 3.14Mbps at its peak. Other 3G carriers were noticeably slower. The only other HSPA provider, T-Mobile, reached 1.17Mbps average and 2.26Mbps peak, while all the EVDO carriers were noticeably worse with no more than 1Mbps on average and 1.4Mbps best.

AT&T's reputation for an unstable network still manifested itself in the test results. It had the least consistent service of all 3G networks, managing just 86.2 percent reliability where Cricket, Sprint and T-Mobile all had significantly over 90 percent uptime. AT&T's upload speeds were also the worst with both the lowest average (280Kbps) and peak (360Kbps) rates. Its network was best in the Southeast and central parts of the country where congestion clearly hurt results in the West and the Northeast.

All of the tests also focused only on data use and didn't account for dropped calls, a major factor in the perceived quality of AT&T's network.

The results may remain static for much of the year, as AT&T has been expanding its 7.2Mbps footprint and now plans to add 14.4Mbps HSPA+ to serve many existing 3G areas. Any swaps of position are most likely to come when LTE-based 4G networks go live, starting with Verizon at the end of this year and AT&T in 2011.

By Electronista Staff