How Did AT&T Hold Up at CES 2010? Root Wireless (and TiPb) Report!
One of the more interesting conversations the Smartphone Experts team had at CES 2010 was with Root Wireless, who monitors the performance of Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile in the US. Their overall message is that there’s no single best carrier, because it varies so much from place to place, but they did try to determine which carrier survived CES the best.
Here’s the bottom line:
AT&T started out providing the fastest service, but quickly fell to 4th place.
Verizon better maintained its consistency of service, performing particularly well on the event’s busiest days.
Loading its proprietary Root Mobile™ crowdsourcing application on smartphones purchased off-the-shelf from each of the ‘Big Four’ carriers, Root Wireless conducted stationary tests at a fixed location immediately adjacent to the Las Vegas Convention Center, constantly running Root Mobile from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., January 5-8. The linear tests determine data transmissions speeds, cell tower hand-off rates and network connection failures, as monitored and reported by Root Mobile. It is noteworthy that the findings differ from others data transmission speed tests conducted using PCs, precisely because Root Mobile is engineered to determine wireless consumers’ real-world experience using smartphones, not PCs. Also worth keeping in mind: Results reported here are local to the Las Vegas Convention Center. Root Wireless network mapping software has confirmed that all network performance is local; it varies from neighborhood-to-neighborhood, from service provider to service provider.
CrackBerry Kevin shot some video at Root Wireless’ booth, so if you’re curious for more (and the techies among you should be!) go check that out on CrackBerry.com.
My experience after the break!
Now make no mistake, there were a lot of iPhones at CES. Tons of BlackBerrys too spread over all the carriers, and a few DROIDs here and there, but the iPhone and AT&T definitely had one of the most visible presences at this convention. For my part, I brought my Rogers iPhone 3GS with me (and yes, it was very expensive). That meant I roamed between AT&T 3G and T-Mobile EDGE (something several Americans told me they wished they could do!).
Anecdotally, not just at CES but at the airports in between, I would walk down a hall and lose all signal on one network and have to wait for my iPhone to roam back to the other. Same in Vegas, the hotel had zero T-Mobile EDGE, but fine AT&T 3G, while the Convention Center was AT&T fail and solid T-Mobile EDGE. Sympathetically, I don’t know how you Americans suffer through any of your GSM/HSPA carriers (and Dieter might add Sprint to the list, given his MiFi failures during the show).
Fake Steve was right, you live in one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, and quite often you can’t connect a call or pull any data. And worse, even when a cell tower gives you 5 full bars of signal, there’s no telling wether the backhaul has any actual bandwidth left behind it. (Imagine having a powerful WiFi router lit up at home, but your cable or DSL modem was dead behind it).
O2 is apparently suffering now as well, so you’re not alone, but it’s going to take massive investment and brilliant innovation (including solid 4G coverage) to ride the upcoming tsunami-like data demands.
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I think this just shows exactly what most experience. AT&T has the fastest network, but gets bogged down too easily by heavy demand (like iPhone users). Verizon’s network is somewhat slower, but is more consistent and does not show the strain.
Now, what we don’t know is how many users are pulling data from each network. I suspect at a convention like CES, there are an awful lot more iPhones pulling data than other phones. And even if you had the same number of Blackberry’s and iPhones, the iPhone is rendering full webpages, while the Blackberry is showing the equivalent of text files and a compressed image.
And the BlackBerrys are spread over all 4 networks, reducing the strain on any 1 of them.
AT&T sent out a press release today talking about how they plan on having a good Super Bowl in Miami in a few weeks.
Are we not counting sprints wimax which was faster than any of the other carriers there?
@Steve Woz spokesperson
I am in Chicago, so as soon as there’s a Wimax phone worth having, I’m in. Rumors point to an HTC version on Sprint later this year…
1# AT&T woooo!!!
@McG
Don’t compare the Iphone to blackberry .. compare it Android phones … Android users use their data as much as Iphone users… and Droid users use it even more than the average android user..
Now granted there are not the same amount of Android phones out there as the Iphones… but that’s the reality any Iphone owner or att consuemer has to deal with .. Wherever you go .. there will be a lot of Iphones …
One thing that Verizon shows is that it can take the load better than any network .. and that has little to do with the number of phones being used … because the consistency was kept throughout .. when you compare it to the other 3 ..
This chart also shows what I’ve been saying for years.. Sprint is vastly UNDERRATED as a network… if it’s not the best out there.. it’s 2nd to Verizon .
What happened on Friday?
At&T was at least keeping pace with Verizon until Friday when ATT went over the clif.
So what was going on Friday to cause the huge crash? Rene? Anyone?
Root Wireless will be testing and measuring service at the Super Bowl. Stay tuned to see how all of the carriers do. Thanks for your interest in Root and what we do.
@Jerry
number of phones means everything. If there are 100 iphones on a tower vs 20 Droids, what do you think will happen when they all hit the tower for data? Its very logical the number of phones taxing the towers can mean greatly slower speeds for those users. A tower can only hold so many phones on it
Jerry said: One thing that Verizon shows is that it can take the load better than any network .. and that has little to do with the number of phones being used. Do you think verizon is pulling more data then AT&T? I doubt it. And I’m pretty sure that the amount of phones being used has everything to do with it.
Verizon is literally pointless. As along with this article because they didn’t even mention how well Sprint did on their “bottom line”. The Sprint is a good network. Verizon 3G is not as fast as Sprint. Even in large areas in the country. AT&Ts is really speedy. & idk about t-mobile.
Unfair comparison. Is it safe to say that there were more iPhones than Verizon phones using data? The Verizon network was presumably under less stress and therefore can’t be declared more reliable.
The iPhone should probably be spread across the carriers to spread the data burden. But had Apple chose Verizon (or Verizon not rejected Apple according to rumors), no one has shown any proof that Verizon would have fared any better than AT&T has.
If Verizon was too stupid to supposedly “reject” Apples phone, what makes you think Apple would want to go back and beg to someone that turned down the worlds most popular phone out there. (Or atleast the U.S.) All Verizon does is Kiss ass and just waits for that oppotunity to come. It really doesn’t matter by revenue. Steve Jobs doesn’t care if consumers will buy the product or not, they know! That’s what Apple is all about. That is why they make these products, because they’re certain that they’re gonna sell.
They need to test another ATT non-iPhone smartphone. Take a Nokia N900, put it on at&t’s 3g network and put it through the same paces. That way we can see if it is an iPhone specific problem or AT&T’s backhaul.
To an individual user, I think the pure speed numbers matter more than the “why?”. If AT&T’s network is taxed by too many iPhones, then I want to be on another network.
If you were at the grocery store, you wouldn’t get in the longest line and then complain that the cashier is too slow, would you?
Of course, if the cashier is really hot, you might stand there happily, but that’s another issue…
Nice comparison, Joe McG!
Although, It would be interesting to see the network usage figures for the corresponding time frames.
to Edie… who needs an iphone… at that price tag…and now mostly homeless guys has an iphone.. and there is no status symbol also for that price…if I was Verizon…even I would have said NO outright… this is no brainier… for $750 its worthless…
there will always be 1% fans for apple products… just for the sake of that 1% u dont have to bend the way…apple wants.
Judging from the picture it looks as if Verizon and Sprint were really neck and neck. Even T-mobile was slower, but consistent. I’d like to know what happened on Friday to break AT&T so badly.
@Whyphone.:
There are… other forms… of punctuation… you know…
@whyphone: Well why don’t you look at Verizon now. Bending over their heads just to get what they were to have right now, as we speak. But KARMA is a bi**h, and we’ll see how all this will play out soon between Apple and Verizon. Who knows, hopefully Sprint can get it,
FYI, much more of a better network than Verizon. You pay for what you actually get.
Sprint led all carriers in December.
Then, during the four days in Jan., Sprint led Verizon twice and tied them once (thus, 2.5 points for Sprint; 1.5 for V.). Sprint also led AT&T three out of the four days (3.5 points Sprint; .5 points AT&T).
Results: 6 points Spring; 1.5 points Verizon; 0.5 points AT&T. Then, add December to Sprint (which is a heavy usage month). Clearly, Sprint showed greater capabilities.
I’ve used Pocket PC’s for over a decade (HPs, Dell’s, and Toshiba’s). The iPhone may be great, no doubt (for some things). The HTC Touch Pro, which runs on Sprint, is a fantastic well-rounded toy-machine. Applications for CE/Windows-based electronics have been around a lot longer than all the new apps coming out for the iPhone.
Plus, you can customize them (e.g., HTC Touch line, and other similar ones) almost however you like. Expensive, sure but they’re, actually, mini-laptops with phones.
In the end, whatever we opt to have will NEVER be perfect. Carrier service pricing (as well as electronics’ pricing) should continue to drop – we all do and really need them to keep dropping. Lower prices would also cycle the technology faster (more people would buy more at a faster rate), and this would improve the overall industry and the services we receive.
Calculation error/correction: during the four days in Jan., Sprint led AT&T by 3/4s. Thus, 3 points for Sprint; 1 point for AT&T.
Totals revised: Sprint 5.5; for Verizon 1.5 points; for AT&T 1 point.
No idea what happened Friday, perhaps more consumers showed up? Saturday people were beginning to leave and rumor had it reception was improving. Don’t know what that means in terms of speed, though.
@MACBOY and @ JK
I think numbers DO matter when it comes to straining the network..
but what I’m saying is that Verizon was more consistent even when the numbers grew. That’s what I meant that the numbers don’t matter when it comes to consistency.. It was a bad way to phrase it.. and I understand why you guys are confused.
The real story to me was not at CES, but the rest of Vegas during CES.
AT&T knew that the CES Hall would be flooded with iPhones, so they beefed up their network. I had pretty good reception Wednesday-Friday when I was there and was satisfied…at CES.
HOWEVER, my hotel (the Flamingo) was a dead zone, as was much of the strip. Calls that I would finally get out were dropped within 2 minutes and data was non-existent. There was a medical issue with a family member and it took them 3 hours to get a hold of me.
AT&T has to bulk up their network throughout town, not just one location. Where do they think the CES attendees go after the show?
It’s an issue of attaining consistent quality. They have a huge challenge ahead of them, and I’m pleased that they do as well as they do, but they need to keep improving.
@Edie
Assuming Karma is a real thing, I doubt it pertains to the business decisions of cell phone companies. It’s not like they’re killing kittens…
Don’t know what sort of math you are using but Sprint is the clear winner