Wired survey: AT&T network to blame for iPhone 3G woes?
Mon Aug 25, 2008 12:17PM EDT
See Comments (19)
Does the new iPhone suffer from iffy 3G reception, or does AT&T just have a spotty 3G network? That's the question Wired sought to answer through an informal survey of iPhone 3G users.
Wired News posted the results of its survey early Monday; in all, more than 2,600 worldwide iPhone 3G users responded, each posting their fastest 3G and EDGE data speeds along with their cities, countries, and GPS coordinates.
Wired helpfully mapped the results here, complete with bars indicating levels of service and the number respondents in a given area. You can also peruse the raw data in this Google spreadsheet.
The results? Overall, European iPhone 3G users—and especially those in Germany and the Netherlands—seemed to get the fastest 3G data speeds (averaging a whopping 2,000Kbps), with the slowest speeds coming from Australia (just 700Kbps). U.S. iPhone users landed somewhere in the middle, although they reported the most "0" speeds (no data access at all); then again, most of the survey respondents (more than 1,600) were from the U.S., so keep that in mind.
Other findings: T-Mobile in Europe appears to be the speediest iPhone carrier (about 1,800Kbps), with Rogers/Fido in Canada coming in second, followed by AT&T, Telstra, Telia, and Softbank (average of 990Kbps). Coming in dead last: Optus and Virgin in Australia, with a pokey 390Kbps average.
Looking at the numbers, it looks like European iPhone 3G users are enjoying pretty snappy data performance compared to those of us in the U.S.—and as Wired notes, Europe has about a three-year head start in terms of 3G HSDPA networks (AT&T didn't launch its HSDPA data network until 2004, compared to 2001 for European carriers).
Wired's conclusion:
In our view, this data is a strong indicator that performance of the mobile carrier's network is affecting the iPhoe 3G more than the handset itself. This also furthers our thesis that it's highly unlikely that Apple is going to wave a magical wand and say, "3G problems, be gone" with a software update."
Interesting stuff—but I'd be even more curious to see how the iPhone 3G compares speed-wise to other 3G handsets on AT&T's HSDPA network.
For example: I happen to have the iPhone 3G and an AT&T 3G-capable Palm Treo Pro right here in my third-floor Manhattan office (in the vicinity of Astor Place).
Using DSL Report's mobile speed test (the testmyiphone.com service used by Wired's guinea pigs will only work on the iPhone), I put the iPhone 3G and the Treo Pro—each using AT&T 3G SIM cards—through their respective paces.
Running the test a total of 10 times for each device—twice with 100K files, three times with 1MB files, and five times with 400K files—the iPhone 3G managed an average download speed of 173Kbps, compared to 293 for the Treo Pro.
Ouch … also, the iPhone 3G peaked at a respectable 523Kbps but dipped as low as 72Kbps, while the Treo peaked at 508Kbps but never slipped below 155Kbps.
Now, a single test conducted by one guy in just one place doesn't prove anything, but I'm not sure how much the Wired test proves either, given the informal nature of the survey and lack of side-by-side device comparisons on the same network. To my mind, the iPhone 3G's reception—or lack thereof—is still open to debate.
So, reactions to Wired's survey? (Make sure to check out the complete report here.) Got your own iPhone 3G speed tests to share? Fire away.
Update: The Unofficial Apple Weblog reports that engineers in Sweden compared the iPhone 3G's reception with that of a Nokia N73 and a Sony Ericsson P1. The result: A "negligible" difference between the three phones, with the iPhone 3G's reception deemed "completely normal." So ... go figure.
Related:
Wired.com's iPhone 3G Survey Reveals Network Weaknesses [Wired News]
Comments on Wired survey: AT&T network to blame for iPhone 3G woes?
Post a Comment
Join in the discussion. Here you'll see the comments in the order they were posted.
-
2 Posted by thegadgetdoc on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:04PM EDT Report Abuse
I have a background in the cell phone industry and agree with the conclusions only partially. Often issues like this are due to a combination of factors. Congestion is certainly viable, but there are also reports that you can put a few 3G phones next to each other and only the iPhone is experiencing a problem. It could be a combination of congestion (in some areas), provisioning (data provisioning issues for the particular MTN), the cell's OS (it may be set to roam too easily), or perhaps the chipset/antenna within the phone. Regarding CDMA vs. GSM... don't be so sure about CDMA's superiority o2cmefly.. Verizon plans to convert to GSM for the 4G network within 2 years. Sorry to pop your bubble...
-
3 Posted by lucykissdavid018 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:59PM EDT Report Abuse
superiority o2cmefly.. Verizon plans to convert to GSM for the 4G network within 2 years. Sorry to pop your bubble...
-
4 Posted by highergroundfinsvc on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:19PM EDT Report Abuse
let us get more base with a phone, I have a black jack slightly older, and it is 3G my staff has 3g on razors, so with the phones not being the factor, when I travel I have no availability of service. So I would have to offer frustration with A T & T. In attempt to have service uninterupted I was directed to walk a certain distane, then drive 5 miles, then 10. Apparently it was my location yet the homeowner had all bars. This is a 3G issue. It will be worked out like all the other flaws eventually. To answer the Roaming issue, I wi----- had jumped to roaming maybe I would have had signal. Am I changing carriers, probably not. It all lacks in one area or another.
-
5 Posted by collectionlaw on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:28PM EDT Report Abuse
I've been at AT&T customer for several years. After dropping my Motorola RAZR one time too many, I updgraded to a Samsung Blackjack. I purchased bought the iPhone 3G and ahve had it for over a month now. Any problems I have accessing the 3G network on my iPhone happen in exactly manner and areas as my old Blackjack. The difference is that the problems are far less with iPhone. Heck, significant portions of the AT&T 3G network still don't even know to handle the switch to Daylight Saving Time. I suspect that most of the problems are related to AT&T's spotty 3G network. In my experience, the iPhone is still a vast improvement over the Blackjack and the Blackjack II.
-
6 Posted by godfreytk on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:10PM EDT Report Abuse
I have the older version of the iPhone, it sucks for reception and we have the newest type of cell phone tower in our town. My phone was damaged in a car wreck and they are replacing it with the newer version. I hope that the signal is better when I get it. I have never had a problem with signal in any of my other phones.
-
7 Posted by zurijim on Thu Sep 3, 2009 11:02PM EDT Report Abuse
love to see posting from a company - i.e. Verizon. Anyone who has and uses Verizon knows their "network" is terrible. I have never had more calls dropped than I do on my current Verizon phone. AT&T might not be any better, which is probably affecting the iPhone. Unfortunately, in the U.S. there is no mobile provider with even decent coverage. I wish Verizon spent half the money they do on marketing their network to actually improving the piece of....
-
8 Posted by srwilco on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:38PM EDT Report Abuse
Very interesting--the only flaw in the study I could see is that the word "data" is a plural noun: "In our view, *these* data *are* a strong indicator that performance of the mobile carrier's network is affecting the iPhoe 3G more than the handset itself." Other than that, nice job :)
-
9 Posted by cvanbus on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:32PM EDT Report Abuse
uh. I switched from Sprint to Verizon a little over a year ago, and I have yet to have a dropped call. They have a good network. Crappy customer service, but a good network.
-
10 Posted by cruzan_son on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:31PM EDT Report Abuse
To srwilco: it is correct to use *this* and *is* in the statement. If you remove the noun data from the sentence, the sentence still reads correctly. "This is a strong indicator..." reads much better than "These are a strong indicator..." But then again the word data is one of those words that can be tricky to use. As for the iPhone issues, I dont have any b/c I dont have one...yet. ;-)
1 Posted by o2cmefly on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:43PM EDT Report Abuse
This is why, although I'd love to have an iphone, I'll wait for the CDMA version on Verizon's much superior network. My biggest reservation about the iphone(original and 3G) is the fact that it's only on AT&T. GSm may be more prevalent in Europe, but it is an inferior technology to CDMA in every way. We would be best served to kick GSM to the curb altogether here, and just have CDMA.