AT&T Wireless Broadband Speed Review (2009)
For the most recent info, check out the 2010 AT&T 3G Speed Review.
AT&T has 'the nation's fastest 3G network. They also seem to have the most data outages.AT&T Wireless broadband speed is advertised as "the nation's fastest 3G network" with "typical download speeds of 700 Kbps - 1.7 Mbps" and "typical upload speeds of 500 Kbps - 1.2 Mbps". On paper, that's faster than the average speeds Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile provide on their respective 3G networks.
Not bad at all. But what about the maximum speed?
Sprint and Verizon's maximum mobile broadband speeds are higher than these 'typical speeds'. 3.1 Mbps to be exact. Interestingly enough, you won't find a maximum quoted speed on AT&T's site. Here's why.
If they posted the maximum possible speed, it would make them look bad.
That's right. While AT&T is working on their network, they have not maxed out the potential of their underlying HSPA technology. If they did, we could have download speeds up to 14.4 Mbps and upload speeds up to 5.8 Mbps. See how the current 1.7 Mbps (download) and 1.2 Mbps (upload) look small now?
So what's stopping them? Well, power for one. Being able to download or upload at higher speeds requires more power from whatever source you're using. Since HSPA is inherently a mobile technology, that means more power being drained from your laptop or phone.
More power being drained equals less battery life. While this is not scientific by any measure, think about this. If you increased your download speed by a magnitude of ten, would you be willing to accept one tenth of the battery life you now get from your laptop or phone?
Most laptop batteries go for anywhere between 2 - 5 hours. Think 30 - 60 minutes instead. See where we're going with this?
So that's one issue. The second is cost.
With AT&T already capping mobile broadband plans at 5 Gigabytes, imagine how fast you'd hit that cap with 10 times the speed you have now. It would be too ridiculous to have a 5 GB cap.
That means AT&T would have to expand the current network capacity (spend money). While they eventually will have to, they most likely won't until market pressure (think demand and competition) is great enough.
In other words, around late 2010 or early 2011 when Verizon starts launching it's new LTE network.
But what about now?
Isn't AT&T Mobile Broadband the Fastest 3G Network?
According to AT&T "The fastest 3G network claim is based on a variety of tests conducted by leading third-party researchers, who downloaded a variety of applications and files to test throughput and overall performance. AT&T was the winner by a significant margin".
See our previous AT&T Wireless broadband speed review for the details on 3G, WiFi, & EDGE network speed.s
One of AT&T's mobile broadband commercials. Wait till the end to hear the snippet on 'the nation's fastest network' While they offer no resources to read the report or who actually conducted it, there have been no public challenges to the claim by its competitors. Does that make it true?
For now it seems so...if not for other publicized tests that seem to contradict this claim.
To make matters worse, a Gartner research report released in January found that "data speeds for mobile phone users are often half of what is advertised by the carriers". The most problems were found with AT&T.
While this report talks about mobile phone users, mobile broadband Laptop Connect subscribers use the same network. It's not a far stretch to have the same issues affect them as well.
For the full details on how Sprint has the fastest network on average, check out Lesson 8 of Mobile Broadband Buyer's Guide. You'll see how even when Sprint didn't beat the competition, they still remained a serious contender in all cities tested (from coast to coast).
Another issue regarding the nation's 'fastest 3G network' are data outages. The question you've got to ask is "What's the point of the fastest 3G network if you don't have access to it?". For that reason and that reason alone, you've got to read on for AT&T Coverage & Reliability.
