With iPhone now being available across the 3 major mobile carriers, the hard part is deciding which carrier serves the best needs for each consumers. This debacle has now been simplified by a recent study done by Metrico Wireless, a global leader in mobile device performance analytics. Testing for network performance, Metrico Wireless downloaded more than 21,000 web pages, made 6,000 voice calls, and conducted 8,000 download/upload tests both moving and stationary.
As some might already know, AT&T was known for its high rate of dropped calls, but it does have the best data speed. As this stands the case, AT&T was a clear winner for data speed at 6,047 kbps almost tripling the speed of runner-up Verizon at 2,371 kbps, and lastly Sprint with 1,767 kbps. Moving on to calling, Verizon was lowest with dropped calls at 2.1% while AT&T had 2.8%, Sprint on the other hand had 3.7% calls lost, however, Sprint did have the best outgoing call quality whereas AT&T had the best incoming call quality. Another important finding was that all three carriers had perfect network reliability when it came to performing data related tasks such as downloading web pages and stationary downloads/uploads.
This makes it easier for individuals to decide which carrier they would prefer. If you want the best bang for your buck you might want to consider Sprint since it is the only carrier that offers true unlimited plan. For Verizon and AT&T, calls and messages may be unlimited but not data. Verizon, seems to have a better coverage and call reliability and AT&T with the fastest data speed.
Data speed over the mobile reliability is the success factor these days. My company replaced every single business desk set with an iPhone docked into the iFusion running Cisco mobile. They primarily use Wi-Fi internally to drive this combination however when I’m out in the field I need the data speed. Honestly for every 20 calls I make on the Cisco app I only make 1 mobile call.
Yes, from a business standpoint data is definitely the way to go considering you can easily make calls via apps. But for the individual users who might have to consider affordable monthly payments, they’ll have to shop around and see what’s the best deal. Personally, I would only be considering AT&T or Sprint if I were to get an iPhone. Sprint because I like to have the peace of mind of unlimited data and not have to worry about overage.