This is the 2008 Review. Click here for the 2009 Alltel Wireless Internet Speed Review.
The Facts
With Alltel High Speed Internet "you can enjoy download speeds of 400 -700 Kbps with peaks up to 2.4 Mbps in Broadband areas. In High Speed areas, download speeds are 40-70 Kbps with peaks up to 144 Kbps".
What’s so special about that?
Think DSL speeds all over the country. It’s the sweet convenience of being able to hop online fast to deal with serious problems or just browse around for fun.
|
Location |
Connection Type |
Speed (kilobits per sec) |
Speed (kilobytes/s) |
|
Partner Locations |
WiFi |
3,000 – 20,000 Kbps |
375 KB/s – 2,500 KB/s |
|
Urban Areas |
3G |
600 – 1,400 Kbps |
73.2 KB/s – 170.8 KB/s |
|
Rural Areas |
1xRTT |
40 – 70 Kbps |
4.9 KB/s – 8.5 KB/s |
To see how your current speed matches up, use the tool below:
To size up Alltel High Speed Internet against the competition, see the carrier comparison.
The Fine Print
Alltel EVDO speed lags behind Sprint, Verizon and AT&T.
Since Verizon decided to buy them, the decision has been made to upgrade it’s 3G EVDO network from revision 0 to revision A.
The upgraded networks will support 3.1 Mb/s on the downlink and 1.8 Mb/s on the uplink (maxed out). Real world speeds will be closer to ranges given by Verizon of 600 Kbps – 1.4 Mbps downloading and 500 Kbps – 800 Kbps uploading. Not bad but definitely not better than WiMAX or LTE.
As for 40-70 Kbps in high speed areas?
No. Just No.
That’s how fast traffic moves at 5:15pm in New York City rush hour traffic. That kind of speed was fast in the 1990′s maybe. Definitely not now. 144 Kbps is hardly a burst of speed. Call it for what it is, 1xRTT, 1x, dialup speed, but definitely not high speed.
Bottom-line: Alltel internet access can get what you need to get done for now, but if you’re looking for high bandwidth to play with, you’ll have to wait until they finish upgrading their network. What they do have a pretty firm grip on though is coverage…
