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Inside the new ipad's 4g lte mobile data: at&t vs verizon by 123wert sdfsf
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Inside the new ipad's 4g lte mobile data: at&t vs verizon |
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Apple's newest iPad sports very fast 4G LTE data service, availableon either AT&T or Verizon Wireless in the US. Here's how the twocarriers stack up as LTE providers. Similar to our iPhone 4S testing across the data networks of AT&T, Sprint and Verizon thiswinter, we performed a new series of tests on both the AT&T andVerizon models of the new iPad. We didn't test the strength of radio connectivity between iPad andcellular towers, which is reflected in the "bars" of servicereported by the device. Instead, we measured actual datathroughput, providing a better indication of how well it willactually work on each carrier when you look up maps, browse the webor download or upload email.
Introducing 4G LTE The new iPad is Apple's first device designed to connect to LTEnetworks, also referred to as "4G" to distinguish it from existing3G technologies including Verizon's CDMA EV-DO and the 3GPP UMTStechnology used by AT&T in the US. The first generation of mobile networks were essentially voice-onlyanalog (AMPS in the US), followed by a second generation of digitalnetworks (CDMAOne and GSM) with rudimentary data features. The 3G networks launched over the past decade initially beganmaking it feasible to transmit data fast enough to comfortablysupport tasks such as web browsing. However, the exact definitionof 3G or 4G is interpreted broadly enough to nearly be meaningless. Up until late 2010, 4G was supposed to mean blazing fast 100Mbpsdata service using new carrier technologies and IP networking, justlike computer networks and wireless WiFi.
Mobile carriers, however, wanted a new feature to sell smartphones,and pushed for "4G" to cover the significantly improvedtechnologies they were in the process of building out. The ITUstandards body relented and redefined "4G" to cover both the limited version of 4G LTEthen being fleshed out as well as a variety of similar "3G+"standards, including HSPA+, which also delivered data service wellin excess of the speeds commonly associated with 3G. Verizon's leap from CDMA EV-DO to LTE Verizon was the first national US carrier to implement LTE service,largely because it had the slowest 3G data network with norealistic potential to upgrade it. Qualcomm, which had developedthe 2G CDMAOne and 3G CDMA EV-DO carrier technologies Verizon hashistorically used, had abandoned plans to build its own 4Greplacement. Instead, the chasm between Qualcomm's CDMA networks and theincompatible but more widely used GSM/UMTS technologies created bythe 3GPP standards body was bridged by technology sharing thatimplemented carrier technologies originally developed by Qualcommand improvements made by other technology companies.
The resulting 3GPP roadmap for GSM/UMTS standards outlined a seriesof steps that carriers could implement to bring significant,incremental improvements to their networks, working toward a 4Gfuture. However, for legacy CDMA carriers such as Verizon, movingtoward 3GPP standards would require a larger jump. Internationally, other CDMA carriers have either bolted onUMTS/HSPA or LTE "overlays" that augmented their existing CDMAEV-DO service. Outside of AT&T and Verizon in the US, Sprint hoped to beat itscompetitors to the market with competing WIMAX service, but hassince announced plans to move toward LTE. T-Mobile has invested inHSPA+ upgrades but had no LTE rollout plans; it expected to beacquired by AT&T last year, and serve as an accelerant to help rollout that company's LTE strategy up until the government gotinvolved and forced the transaction into failure.
Verizon's LTE performance In our testing, Verizon's LTE network can be spectacularly fast,regularly reaching an astounding 40Mbps for downloads and up to19Mbps for uploads. In the US, that's significantly faster thantypical fast cable broadband speeds. But Verizon's LTE isn't alwaysthat fast. About ten percent of the time, LTE areas only deliveredan AT&T 3G-esque 1.9Mbps to 2.7Mbps down, even while delivering(oddly enough) fast 10-14Mbps uploads.
Occasionally, despiteshowing bars of LTE, we got poor service speeds. In about a quarter of our tests, Verizon's LTE delivered what we'ddescribe as "Advanced 3G/4G" speeds between 5-10Mbps. However, mostof the time, represented in 65 percent of our tests, Verizon's LTEdelivered greater than 10Mbps download speeds, up to 40Mbps. Theseare typical WiFi speeds, very impressive for a mobile device.
About18.8 percent of the time, we got better than 20Mbps downloads onVerizon's LTE. Despite usually delivering fast downloads, Verizon's LTE uploadswere more of a mixed bag, ranging from an occasional slow 1Mbpsrate to upload speeds between 3-9Mpbs about half of the time. Andfactoring in non-LTE service holes, we experienced slower than5Mbps service around 37.7 percent of the time. The biggest disappointment to Verizon users will be that as soon asyou lose LTE service (which is only available in limited areas),data rates fall back into CDMA EV-DO territory, with a relativelyplodding 0.1-1.3Mbps data rate for both uploads and downloads.That's the same you get from current Verizon iPhone models, andagain is why Verizon worked the hardest to get LTE deployed first. AT&T, LTE & 4G In contrast to Verizon's big jump to LTE, existing GSM providerssuch as AT&T and T-Mobile have had the ability to incrementallyimprove their existing networks.
While Verizon decided to jump toLTE directly, AT&T has added both incremental HSPA+ upgrades andhas recently began building LTE as well in parallel, albeit beingbehind Verizon's LTE deployment. AT&T, like T-Mobile, has also rebranded its HSPA+ service as "4G"in order to associate it with the faster data service of LTE. Bothhave the potential of reaching around 10-40Mbps, in excess of tentimes faster than typical 1-1.5Mbps 3G EV-DO service. In our tests,AT&T's non-LTE "4G" service delivered a respectable 1.5 to 8Mbps,far above typical 3G but below the 9-40Mbps rates of AT&T's LTE. The proportional breakdown of AT&T's mixed 4G and LTE service wasnearly identical to Verizon's LTE: about ten percent of the time,AT&T's 4G areas delivered1.7Mbps to 2.5Mbps downloads, althoughuploads on those "4G" networks were much slower, effectively 3Gspeeds of 1-1.5Mbps.
Across the board, AT&T fell below our baselineof 5Mbps 26.6 percent of the time, significantly less often thanwith Verizon. In about a quarter of our tests, AT&T's 4G or LTE delivered those"Advanced 3G/4G" speeds between 5-10Mbps. However, most of thetime, represented in 63 percent of our tests, AT&T's LTE deliveredgreater than 10Mbps down, up to the same 40Mbps hit by Verizon.When indicating LTE rather than 4G, AT&T's upload rates were alsoconsistently faster than Verizon's, in the 10Mbps and up category.AT&T also reached above 20Mbps in 40 percent of our tests, nearlytwice as often as Verizon. AT&T vs Verizon in 4G & LTE The bottom line: both AT&T and Verizon deliver very fast LTEdownloads. In our tests, AT&T seemed to provide more consistent LTEupload speeds.
Uploads matter if you're doing more than justbrowsing the web or downloading apps and movies. If you plan to dothings like capture videos and email them to friends, you'll wantthe kind of upload speeds AT&T performed better at deliveringconsistently. If you're located well within the currently quite limited LTEservice areas of AT&T and Verizon, you'll enjoy really fast dataspeeds on either network. Unlike our previous testing of AT&T'searly 3G network beginning in 2008, we found that even when the newiPad indicates a poor signal with just one or two bars, we werestill able to download at very fast speeds (below). However, inmany cases our Verizon model would indicate more bars, but deliversignificantly slower LTE data service.
It's possible Verizon's LTEnetwork is handling more traffic, because its also newer thanAT&T's, so this may change as AT&T signs up more LTE users. If you plan to use your new iPad outside of areas covered by LTE,you'll have a different experience depending on the carrier youchoose. While Verizon offers broader LTE service coverage spots, assoon as you leave the coverage area you're instantly back in 3Gland, and slow EV-DO 3G (less than 1Mbps) at that. If you break out AT&T's faster, more modern HSPA+ networks, whichcan deliver the same WiFi-like mobile speeds as LTE, the comparisonbetween AT&T and Verizon's available "4G" networks tilt in favor ofAT&T, as presented in the service maps of the Coverage app.
The first graphic below shows AT&T's (in blue) and Verizon's (inred) LTE network maps. The graphic below it adds all "4G" networks,allowing AT&T to get credit for its similarly performing, modernmobile networks. With AT&T, as you leave LTE service areas you first get "4G," whichranges from very fast download speeds that feel like 4G (in that5-10Mbps range) to service that feels more like very good 3G(1.5-5Mbps) down to the very rural speeds (less than 1Mbps) you'llfind as you leave civilization. However, while AT&T offered consistently faster LTE uploads thanVerizon, when you enter "4G" on AT&T your downloads rapidly degradeto less than 1.5Mbps, which is hard to call 4G with a straightface. In real world testing that involved reloading a long series ofidentical images in Mail, we found that despite slight differencesin data throughput on each network, the effective and apparentspeed of actual tasks seemed consistently identical when bothmodels were operated in LTE service areas.
LTE drawbacks While LTE is indeed very fast, it is not without its downsides.Apple seems to have solved the biggest issue with 4G on the newiPad: the idea that you can't have both LTE and battery life. Thenew iPad packs a huge battery and modern LTE chipsets that make itsuse very efficient, to the point where it wasn't an obvious batteryhog. The next big issue for LTE is that, while it's fast, carriers arenot giving you any more data to run through. It's not a fire hoseof data. It's more like a squirt gun: it shoots out data fast, butyou also drain your tank quickly and have to refill at significantcost once you plough through your 2GB or so of data.
If carriersreally want to see adoption of LTE, they need to stop being sogreedy about data limits. Offering ten times faster data at thesame data limit is absurd. AT&T is advertising its LTE service with spots that suggest peopleare greatly benefitted by getting Facebook updates and emailsseconds before their peers. This is simply not true. LTE's biggestadvantage will be when it allows you to inhale movies and downloadlarge apps and documents.
You don't need faster data to get quicktext updates. This is just stupid. Verizon on the other hand has simply resurrected to its "we'rebigger than AT&T" ad campaign, insisting that it has significantlymore LTE service than its competitor. While that's technicallytrue, AT&T has significantly more 4G service, and our tests showAT&T's LTE network seems to perform better on uploads (although itsnon-LTE 4G network does not).
Is it true that Verizon's 2-10Mbps LTE is really better than AT&T's2-10Mbps 4G? No. So it's hard to see much honesty in such asimplistic comparison between the LTE coverage maps of Verizon andAT&T, particularly if you ignore AT&T's superior middle ground 4Gservice. Both networks have strengths and weaknesses that can't beboiled down into a best performer. In fact, unless you plan to use your new iPad as a hot spot toserve fast (but limited data capacity) LTE service to your laptopand other devices (something only Verizon currently supports), it'shard to see a clear leader between the Verizon and AT&T models.Both are so constrained by their data plan limits that you mightjust be better off buying the WiFi model and saving the premium tohelp pay for a tethered data plan on your phone. LTE outside North America Apple currently only has agreements in place for LTE-equipped iPadson Verizon and AT&T, along with some Canadian carriers.
Europeanand Australian flavors of LTE aren't compatible with these new iPadversions. Unfortunately, while the top three US carriers and most othersignificant carriers worldwide have settled upon LTE as the theircommon technology for future mobile networking, each carrier isusing its own frequency bands, complicating the potential for usingone device across different networks. The upside is that Apple has also packed quad-band support foralternative 4G technologies into the new iPad, which should work onmost international UMTS/HSPA+ providers, including those thatsupport the very fast DC-HSDPA specification. These technologiescan deliver the same top speeds up around 40Mbps we found with LTEproviders in the US. For a full overall evaluation of the new iPad, see our In-depth review: Apple's third generation iPad and iOS 5.1. I am an expert from Electrical Equipment & Supplies, usually analyzes all kind of industries situation, such as thinkpad t30 memory , hunter irrigation systems.
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