AT&T or Verizon? Any differences?

[smokey982]

My wife and I both have iPhones and have been with AT&T for the past 12 years. Our contracts are up and we plan to upgrade to the new iPhones next month. I've been thinking lately about changing to Verizon. It's not that I'm unhappy with AT&T. Really the only reason is because we have some close friends that live somewhat in the country and I get very little service (if any) when we're there (Verizon works great there). I was in radio shack yesterday and mentioned that to the salesman. And although they sell both services, he seemed to lean toward AT&T more for some reason. He mentioned that he thought AT&T had a little better technology and I never really understood what he meant. So I ask you guys. Other than reception issues, is there any differences in there services? As I said we plan on upgrading to the new iPhones and will be moving to the new family shared plans whether we stay or go. Because we don't currently have unlimited plans anyway. Thoughts?

 

[TheForce]

There are pros and cons to the GSM technology. One pro is the use of the SIM card that you can swap to other phones if the phones are compatible. One disadvantage of the technology is the service is not scalable like CDMA ( Verizon) meaning thyat if in a certain area the population explodes, AT&T will have more frequent dropped calls. This seems to always happen in certain cells like near sporting events and is often why Verizon doesn't seem to be bothered by cell population explosion because CDMA is scalable.
Mostly when I hear sales reps talk of "better technology" with AT&T it is a sincere opinion that the sim card swap is an advantage.
From a business angle GSM is great because the company using it doesn't have to pay a royalty while CDMA companies must license the technology. Therefore the rates from AT&T get a bigger profit margin that the rates from Verizon.

IMO, if you are happy with AT&T stick with it. If Verizon offers something to you that AT&T can't deliver, then switch. From what I hear of late, both are about equal in rates, Verizon offers a slight advantage in coverage nation wide if you travel all over and from personal experience, iphones on AT&T suffer more dropped calls than on Verizon. e.g. My daughter complains it is rare she can complete a call AT&T to AT&T iphone to iphone without a dropped call. However, I can't remember when I dropped a call with another Verizon customer, iphone or not. It just doesn't happen.

 

[Tampa8]

In general I have liked the the phones ATT has better than Verizon, but I'm not an Iphone fan so if Verizon's is the same as ATT for Iphones and you want Iphone I guess there is no difference in that regard.
Att has some services and discounts that you have to ask for. If you are long time customer and generally pay on time they will often work with you. As an example ATT has the micro cell that gives full bars anywhere in and around your house (Or office) for no cost per call or per month beyond obtaining the device. Even if you have some service at your house, it it's not great ATT will let you have the device, eventually for free if you are good customer. But not all customers can get it for free, being a longer time customer definitely makes a difference.
We recently went way over our family minutes for the first time, cost of $100. ATT forgave it, allowed us to upgrade to the next package with no increase in cost for two months then pay the regular (in our case discounted FAN rate) from then on. They also volunteered they can add the free mobile to mobile for calls to any mobile phone not just ATT. I was not aware of that, had they not told me I might have missed adding it.
I travel alot, and it is a rare time I don't have signal. But Verizon does pretty match that. The only difference I have noticed really is at some remote campgrounds in Northern Florida where ATT has a signal and Verizon does not, and in Elevators where for some reason Verizon does seem to lose the signal. But all and all I'm not sure there is a huge difference between the two.

 

[smokey982]

It seems like I remember reading that when the iPhones became available on Verizon for the first time, that you couldn't use the web at the same time you were on a call. I know I could do that with AT&T, although that's rarely a need. Does anyone know if that's still the case on the Verizon iPhone?

 

[NotMe546]

[h=2]AT&T or Verizon? Any differences? [/h]In NY a lot less dropped calls with Verizon.

 

[TheForce]

It seems like I remember reading that when the iPhones became available on Verizon for the first time, that you couldn't use the web at the same time you were on a call. I know I could do that with AT&T, although that's rarely a need. Does anyone know if that's still the case on the Verizon iPhone?

It was true for non-LTE phones. With LTE it is a non issue. The problem before was that with CDMA, you had to connect to the internet with a dialup which tied up the phone tranceiver. LTE uses a different connection transceiver so CDMA phone call and LTE data can take place simultaneously. I do it all the time with my Thunderbolt.

 

[KE4EST]

I know here Verizon has way better coverage than at&t. They are both sold in several places in town and they both have towers here. Most people have Verizon though, everyone complains about dropped calls with at&t.

 

[smokey982]

The rumors are the new iPhone will be 4g LTE with both AT&T and Verizon. Any differences in technology between the 2 carriers on 4G LTE?

 

[mike123abc]

The rumors are the new iPhone will be 4g LTE with both AT&T and Verizon. Any differences in technology between the 2 carriers on 4G LTE?

They use different frequency bands. That plus the fall back to 3G/2G is also a problem... It is possible to have a chip that can do it all with a bunch of antennas.

 

[rvvaquero]

I didn't know ATT had LTE

 

[mike123abc]

I didn't know ATT had LTE

AT&T is rolling it out, they are 6-9 months behind VZ at the moment. They both are using 700 MHZ spectrum from the last TV spectrum auction. VZ is using one block, AT&T another.

http://www.androidauthority.com/verizon-att-continue-expanding-4g-lte-network-100352/

 

[yourbeliefs]

I didn't know ATT had LTE

They don't.. unless you live in 10% of the country.. their coverage is HORRENDOUS. I'm in CT and they STILL don't have LTE (minus 1 small area near the shore that is barely accessible anyways.) service and their roll out plan is beyond dumb. VERMONT, which has more cows than people, and Puerto Rico, which isn't even a state, got LTE coverage before CT, because that makes sense.

I'd vote for Verizon. They constantly have the best service ratings and their LTE network is very expansive. The saying with Verizon is that you get what you pay for (in a good way.) You may want to do more research for your area but if all things were equal pricewise I would go back and jumped ship to VZ instead of signing an AT&T 2 year contract to keep my unlimited internet.

And I think it's safe to assume that all the iPhones will have LTE capabilities. It'd be weird for the iPads to have it but not the iPhones, not to mention the fact that EVERY OTHER phone has it currently.

 

[mdram]

every place i have traveled my verizon phone worked. other providers from friends, it was hit and miss

 

[mperdue]

AT&T is "behind" because they have been upgrading the backhaul and the cell towers to handle HSPA+ first. That gives them a MUCH faster fallback when you leave an LTE area. Many iPhone 4S users on AT&T's network are reporting near LTE speeds using the HSPA+ network. Testing of the AT&T LTE network consistently places it ahead of Verizon on data transfer rates.

NOTE: I'm not unbiased on this, my wife is a tech support manager supporting the HSPA+/LTE buildout.

 

[yourbeliefs]

AT&T is "behind" because they have been upgrading the backhaul and the cell towers to handle HSPA+ first. That gives them a MUCH faster fallback when you leave an LTE area. Many iPhone 4S users on AT&T's network are reporting near LTE speeds using the HSPA+ network. Testing of the AT&T LTE network consistently places it ahead of Verizon on data transfer rates.

NOTE: I'm not unbiased on this, my wife is a tech support manager supporting the HSPA+/LTE buildout.

Fair enough, but I don't like AT&T's plan because for one, I'd rather have just one large LTE network than 1 kinda large Faux G network backing up one very small LTE network. They shouldn't care about the LTE/3G fallback because if you have a large LTE network, then the fallback isn't a big deal. Also, Verizon's LTE network is larger than AT&T's Faux G network. AT&T would have been better served ditching HSPA+ and just pushing for LTE from the beginning. Yes pushing Faux G was a smart business decision in the short term of 2010-2011, but AT&T is suffering hardcore playing catch up with Verizon. Finally, the reason why AT&T is pulling in better speeds than Verizon in some similar markets is because their network is so small and so underutilized. Let's wait a year and see how the speeds are then.

Please don't view the previous paragraph as a personal attack, but really, as an AT&T customer with an LTE device, not being able to get the true speeds and seeing AT&T make some rather questionable decisions in terms of deployment (i.e. Puerto Rico and Burlington, VT ahead of CT) and deploying VERY VERY slowly is wearing very thin on me. And before you ask the extremely logical question of "Why did you buy an LTE device if you didn't have LTE in your area?" I HAD to buy a new phone because my old one was thrown down the stairs.

 

[mperdue]

3G isn't going away for a long time so keeping it current is a very smart thing to do. Also, no provider is planning 100% coverage with LTE any time soon so you are going to have to be able to drop back to 3G in many areas. Sorry to hear that your area hasn't been upgraded yet but AT&T has made no secret of the fact that they won't be fully deployed until the end of 2013.

 

[mike123abc]

AT&T is removing their 2G/Edge (2017 shutoff) network and replacing it with all 3G/LTE. Essentially they are working to get fiber to every tower.

AT&T says they will be done with the LTE roll out by the end of 2013. Once they have fiber everywhere they can roll out LTE very fast.

I drive a lot in rural areas, and they are slowly changing from edge to 3G. I see a lot of fiber being laid.

VZ is definitely ahead of AT&T in the LTE roll out. VZ probably invested in laying fiber to their cell sites before AT&T.

 

[Neutron]

Where we live now (out in the country) Verizon is the only one with reliable service and we both have 3G in town and at our house. I don't see Verizon rolling out LTE anytime soon near us though.

 

[mike123abc]

Where we live now (out in the country) Verizon is the only one with reliable service and we both have 3G in town and at our house. I don't see Verizon rolling out LTE anytime soon near us though.

I believe VZ has stated that they plan to roll LTE out to their entire 3G footprint. So, I would assume that if you have 3G now you eventually will get LTE.

 

[John Kotches]

interesting timing on this thread as I'm beginning to shop networks / costs in advance of the seemingly imminent iphone5 launch.

Trying to find the best overall deal and I'm not locked to any one carrier. 4 smartphones ain't cheap on any network!

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