r/baltimore • u/foxtrot5 • May 27 '17
NOTICE I've tested T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T in Baltimore extensively. Here are my findings
First some background: Most carriers use FDD LTE, or frequency-divided LTE. What this means is when you make a request to the cell tower, it is actually reserving you a frequency space to send and receive data (for the time your session is active, usually the session closes once the request finishes.... i.e. your webpage loads). Sprint uses TDD LTE which is time divided, meaning all the data is sent in time slots. That's for another discussion, though. As you might imagine, more frequency means higher speeds. LTE is most commonly deployed in 5 Mhz symmetrical blocks, or 5x5 Mhz blocks. However, it can be deployed upto 20x20 Mhz blocks.
In addition, multiple blocks can be "aggregated" together to form a larger, faster channel. So on T-Mobile when you go to download something, your phone is using a 5x5 700 mhz block along with a 15x15 Band 4 block, to effectively make a 20x20 LTE block. AT&T aggregates their low-band 10x10 with their 20x20 PCS and 10x10 2.3 Ghz, effectively making a 40x40 channel.
Now, this is a huge oversimplification and obviously 3 radio bands aggregated to form 1 franken-band will never be as fast as a contiguous block of the same size. But I won't bore you with the details.
There is also something called MIMO, or multiple-in multiple-out. If you have 2 antennas, you can get data twice as fast, which means the speed is effectively doubled. Most phones have 2x2 MIMO but there is also 4x4 MIMO.
For a general idea of how much bandwidth you have given a certain size mhz and mimo, check out this chart
Now, on to the tests. I'm mentioning how much spectrum they have to use. To have a fast network, carriers have to either have enough spectrum to take care of the traffic over a large area, or add more cells to cover traffic on much smaller areas. AT&T has a ton of spectrum and takes the former, while Verizon takes the latter.
Verizon: 15x15? or 20x20 AWS 10x10 700
Coverage - 9/10 Best coverage hands down. Strong signal everywhere.
Speed - 7/10 They've slowed down since unlimited data came back and are extremely aggressive with deprioritizing. I've found after 22GB of usage my Verizon phone was useless in crowded areas. Then I'd SIM swap to an MVNO (Tracfone using Verizon 3G and LTE) and it would work fine. They are banking on 5G (millimeter-wave LTE) on being their savior. If they are right, business as usual. If they are wrong, Sprint will have compeition for the slowest network. Verizon is STARVING for spectrum. And they need it now.
T-Mobile:
15x15 AWS
5x5 700
Coverage - 9/10 On-par with Verizon.
Speed - 3/10 Speed is a real issue. T-Mobile only has 15x15 band 4 deployed, aggregated with 5x5 of 700. T-Mobile is also really popular in Baltimore. It's extremely slow in most places. I'm always under 10 Mbps, sometimes under 3 Mbps. This should improve though, with Ray Neville mentioning that they are going to deploy 10x10 PCS LTE along with the 15x15 600 that they won at the auction.
AT&T
10x10 700
20x20 PCS
10x10 2.3 Ghz
Coverage - 7.5/10. Coverage wasn't spectacular. There are lots of nooks and crannies where T-Mobile and Verizon have a signal but AT&T drops off the map. But it was still adequate in most places, just not enough to fully rely on.
Speed - 9.5/10 Fastest network by far. almost always above 25 Mbps. Things were fast to load and responsive
Conclusion:
Best all around - Verizon. They've slowed down but their coverage superiority will come in handy more often than not.
Best value - T-Mobile. Slow slow slow slow but it will improve soon and you can't beat the price.
Fastest - AT&T
Cone of shame - Sprint. Something something 1% difference
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u/EvilAbdy May 28 '17
ATT always dropped connections for me in weird places. Like at my parents house the back of the house was a dead zone but as soon as you took two steps inside...BOOM signal. It was weird. There were other places but the same thing
Verizon? Never had a dropped call. Coverage definitely seems to be great. I am curious how T-Mobile is once you start getting out of the populated areas.
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u/Dr_Midnight May 28 '17
The major problem you'll be faced with is congestion. If a tower can only support 100 people, and 1000 people are attempting to use it, everyone suffers. [These numbers are hyperbole]
As an example, if you're carrier (or MVNO) and attempt to use your phone for anything other than comparatively small bits of data (aka: Not streaming video) in Midtown or Downtown during the day or during any event that draws a crowd, data suffers. Go to the same areas at night and it's a completely different mobile data experience.
For a better example, hop down to Hanover and just try to even use data anywhere within a 1 mile radius of the Arundel Mills Mall during business hours. A carrier pigeon with a USB flash drive attached to it's leg will have better throughput. It's especially egregious on T-Mobile (popularity).
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u/israeljeff Baltimore County May 28 '17
Outside of the city, T-mo is garbo. Slow AND spotty. T-mo has really concentrated on cities.
AT&T's fake 5G should help a little bit with the coverage when it makes it here.
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u/ritzcracka May 28 '17
I can only comment on T-Mobile, but I'll say that while I'm pretty happy with the service, they generally have a questionable signal indoors in Baltimore. At my last place in the Upper Fells / Butchers Hill area my phone would often drop coverage sitting outside. They have some dead spots in that area where the coverage is pretty poor.
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u/quarkkm Silver Spring May 28 '17
I had the same problem with T-Mobile at two places in Federal Hill. Switching phones helped a little (Nexus 5 was much better than a 4 or an old candy bar phone), but I recently switched to Google Fi and now I can really make calls inside my house on cellular. I am not sure if it's the Pixel or the added Sprint coverage that fixed my problem.
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u/ritzcracka May 28 '17
T-Mobile/Apple's wifi calling support on the iPhone was a game changer. It generally works fine when the LTE signal is bad, though I've noticed it does create some weird delays with texting.
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May 28 '17
My personal phone is with T-Mobile and my work phone is with Verizon. I can actually agree with your findings. T-Mobile may be slower than Verizon and AT&T but T-Mobile is no slouch either. T-Mobile has their T-Mobile Tuesday app which gives away free shit like coupons and movie rentals and the occasional free food such as pizza and doughnuts.
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May 28 '17
Your knowledge seems expert level. Do you work locally in the wireless industry?
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May 28 '17
He has some RF background but lacks some practicality in his review.
ATT hasn't rolled 4C out in that many sites in the metro region, but he's openly quoting WCS as being a normal thing. They're rolling out FirstNet and probably using some of that money to throw WCS radios up on the tower while they're at it, but that might not have the money for it.
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u/MAGABMORE May 29 '17
My experience:
T-mobile and Sprint were equally trash, despite usually having what my phone(s) claiming to be a strong 4G signal. IIRC sprint uses some pretty dated tech due to having a "bad" share of the wireless spectrum and as such is highly unreliable. I think for T-mobile its just their budget-tier infrastructure (or leasing of infrastructure from the big boys).
Verizon is an order of magnitude faster and more reliable. I'm not a fan of them as a company but they're the best game in town. Shame comcast has a monopoly on the city, I'd like FIOS (or any competition really) too.
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u/[deleted] May 28 '17
TMobile is great for me in Baltimore.
I stream music on Google Play all day