T-Mobile "Network Pass" 3 month free trial

[comfortably_numb]

ATT "5G+" at CMH airport

Total (Verizon) 5G UW at CMH airport

 

[comfortably_numb]

Holy sh*t 3GBPS on ATT 5G+ at MDW

 

[EarDemon]

Impressive speed by AT&T! That is what mmWave is all about, providing an insane amount of capacity to high traffic areas. I know VZW can hit ~5 Gbps, but all 3 Gbps is nothing to sneeze at.

 

[EarDemon]

I said screw it and pulled the trigger on FirstNet. Nice download, pitiful upload from right outside the AT&T Store.

I had no problem getting approved for it. As soon as I walked in the store and said I want to set up a new line the kid asked what I did for a living and immediately said I qualify. They must be heavily incentived to sign up FirstNet subs.

 

[EarDemon]

Spent the evening driving around speed testing in various areas of surburban hell. There has not been a single area where T-Mobile isn't significantly faster, and I mean SIGNIFICANTLY faster than AT&T. My results pretty much reflect what you've posted and what I've seen others report. My hope is the complete rip and replace of AT&Ts gear as they migrate to 100% Ericsson in combonation with the continued expansion of their network results in long term improvements.

This is from what I like to call the premier cell tower in Western NY. It's on a very busy road, many business, chain stores & restaurants, hotels located in this area. It is a very large tower and has the most vast array of antennas and panels I've ever seen. This tower is home to all three carriers and also had Sprint gear on it before the buyout. This is the tower I was connected to the first time I broke 100 Mbps on LTE (Sprint band 41), first broke 300 Mbps on LTE (T-Mobile band 66) and first broke 1.5 Gbps on NR (T-Mobile n41). Verizon and AT&T live here too, but it's been years since I had a personal device I could run Ookla on with those two

 

[EarDemon]

Overall $45/month for FirstNet Unlimited Extra is pretty sweet. Unlimited talk, text, high priority data AND mobile hot spot. No slow downs based on usage and highest QCI available. Much better than the $86 Unlimited Premium PL. A few months ago when I was at my favorite place in the world, Presque Isle State Park in Erie, PA there was a FirstNet truck providing service to the area parked off to the side by the walking/bike path. Not sure the reason why, nothing was going on to my knowledge, maybe just testing or something. Would have loved to be able to connect to check it out, next time I will be able to

 

[EarDemon]

After two weeks, I wouldn’t quite say the grass isn’t always greener, but sometimes it’s less green than you would think.

I spent Thursday afternoon and today driving around the area in all directions and while there wasn’t an area I didn’t have AT&T service in, and handful of areas with no T-Mobile service, data speeds just do not compare. It was not uncommon to have 4G on AT&T with download speeds 50 Mb or lower, a lot of times in the low to mid teens and upload speeds in the single digits or even sub 1 Megabit. While T-Mobile was banging out 500 Mbps or higher. I had more Gigabit results with T-Mobile than I had 100 Mbps with AT&T. Ping was about equal, with T-Mobile being a few milliseconds quicker, but I’m keeping it in network by using T-Mobile’s Syracuse server and AT&T’s NYC server, and I’m much closer to Syracuse than NYC. Loaded ping there’s no comparison, T-Mobile wins hands down.

At work, I’m in a solid brick building. I can get 250 Mbps or so on T-Mobile in my windowless office, barley 5 on AT&T. AT&T is pretty much useless inside buildings on my campus unless right by a window. I can’t even stream SiriusXM consistently at my desk.

Very little n5 5G anywhere outside of larger towns, 5G+ is only in the big suburbs. I have not ventured into a city yet.

In WNY we have three relatively small Indian Reservations. Unless things changed in the past handful of years there are no towers on Indian land. Verizon had sites strategically placed just outside to provide coverage on two of the three, one I’ve only been on once or twice so I can speak to it. Next weeks adventure is to see how AT&T compares in those areas where T-Mobile is/was non-existent.

It seems FirstNet just doesn’t see the same speeds as AT&T proper, possibly due to prioritizing band 14, but I don’t think that would fully explain the slow speeds. In a few months I might activate a line on the Premium PL Family Plan for $65 for a month or two on an eSIM and compare the two. AT&T seems to have a few big projects going on, c-band deployment, DoD deployment, band 14 and ripping and replacing all Nokia gear with Ericsson so I'm hopeful in time things will drastically improve.

I have not gone near the Buffalo airport, Highmark Stadium or Key Bank Center yet for the big heavy hitters. Niagara Falls is also on my list, the few times I've been there with T-Mobile I was roaming onto Telus.