Comparing 3G Networks

bsk_cw writes "Brian Nadel got hold of cellular network cards from AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon, and tried them out with a Lenovo ThinkPad X300 notebook. He watched videos on commuter trains, worked with e-mail at cafes, listened to Internet radio at the airport, and downloaded large files while in a moving car. AT&T came out on top in his tests in the New York area (summary here). Some of the reader comments report different conclusions, so a YMMV is in order."

Comments

What's the lag?

[MBCook]

My big question would be: what's the lag?

The last time I tried to use a cell network for internet access, the lag was horrid (300+ms) compared to real broadband. How is the lag on these systems? I'd rather have the responsive 450kbps connection than the unresponsive 1.5mbps connection.

Does anyone see the connection here?

[postbigbang]

Philadelphia's muniWiFi network goes dead next month when Earthlink pulls the plug.

Oddly, the telcos start allowing metered access of their 3G networks; no all-you-can-eat plans anymore. In megabyte increments in one case.....

Re:5GiB, $60

[0100010001010011]

Now is that 1-8 cents or 1-8 dollars?

It wasn't a fair comparison

[letsief]

I don't think the reviewer did a very fair comparison. Most significantly, he should have used similar data cards- preferably using cards over USB. The AT&T and Verizon cards were larger, and probably able to pick up weaker signals better. They also included built-in batteries, which greatly impacted the laptop battery life test.

I'm also a little skeptical of his bandwidth testing method. I've never heard the Alken site, and the tests I did right now on my own system aren't even close to my actual performance (although, maybe they're justing getting slammed with traffic). It would have been interesting to see if signal strength played a factor as well.

In any case, most people I've heard from have had exactly the opposite results. Usually Sprint is the fastest, with Verizon not far behind and AT&T bringing up the rear. Sprint also has considerably more 3G coverage than the other two carriers. Without saying anything about their customer service, I think Sprint is the clear choice when it comes to data plans.

Re:It wasn't a fair comparison

[kylehase]

Absolutely correct. If you wanted to isolate the wireless connection as the variable then each provider should setup their own download server on their network. It would be in their interest to use a beefy server and place it optimally on the network for wireless downloads.

For an even more controlled test you'd need to use the same server hardware and same application layer protocols on each network.

Unfortunately, while this would be a great test for wireless transfer speed it's not a good test of actual browsing/downloading.

Crowdsourcing the Data

[DavidD_CA]

Maybe something already exists, but wouldn't it be cool if there was some kind of app that people could install on their laptops that would upload metrics to a central server and make it available to review?

The app could tie into the 3G card and pull your approximate location, your carrier, and your average speed and upload it all to a server. As long as it doesn't also upload personal data, or your IP, etc, I can't foresee privacy issues (and it would be opt-in anyway).

With enough people running an app like this, the data could come together quite nicely and allow people to view a map overlayed with the different networks and average performance.

And I bet such a site could be supported by ad revenue. (3: Profit)