Exclusive: Testing shows AT&T 3G network outperforming VZW

Updated Mon., Dec. 7: See the data behind the story: TelephonyOnline has now posted the detailed, market-by-market data from Root Wireless 3G network tests.

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AT&T (NYSE:T) and Verizon Wireless’ (NYSE:VZ, NYSE:VOD) legal battle may be over, but the war over their respective network coverage rages with the two companies attacking each other’s 3G coverage, speed and capabilities. But an independent examination of the real performance of the two providers’ 3G networks shows that while Verizon’s map may lack the huge gaps of AT&T’s, its claims of a superior mobile data network may be overblown.

Root Wireless, a start-up network performance monitoring company, mapped out the network conditions of AT&T and VZW’s network in 7 major markets where both operators offer 3G services and found that AT&T’s high-speed packet access network (HSPA) consistently beat VZW’s EV-DO network in a bevy of different metrics, ranging from download speeds to optimal signal strength. Verizon Wireless has attacked AT&T primarily on its nationwide coverage, which is focused primarily in the major metropolitan areas, but within those metropolitan areas the tables are turned, Root’s metrics show. While AT&T still has weak spots in its urban footprint, they are no more pronounced than in Verizon’s network, and when extrapolated across the entire market footprint AT&T’s fairs far better, producing far fewer peaks and valleys in network capacity and much greater data speeds, said Ron Dicklin, Root Wireless chief technology officer.

Dicklin said he believes AT&T is getting a bad rap, resulting from Verizon’s very effective ad campaign and the high expectations of iPhone users – rather than any inherent flaw in its networks. “AT&T has a much more stable higher-speed average than Verizon,” Dicklin said. “In general you’re going to get a much more balanced experience with AT&T than you would with Verizon in areas where they both have 3G.”

Root tested VZW and AT&T’s networks in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles-Orange County, New York, San Francisco, Seattle-Tacoma and Washington, DC. According to its data, AT&T’s average download speed ranged from 246 kb/s to 428 kb/s across the seven markets, while VZW’s average speeds ranged from 195 kb/s to 259 kb/s, validating AT&T’s claim of having the nation’s fastest 3G network. Verizon’s uplink-optimized EV-DO revision A network, however, beat out AT&T in upload speeds in most of those markets, though not by much. Average uplink bandwidth for both operators ranged from 94 kb/s to 138 kb/s. In general the chance for a data connection failure was low for both operators, never exceeding 3%, but AT&T managed to best or match Verizon in all seven markets. Surprisingly, Sprint (NYSE:S) had the highest connection failure rate, ranging from 11% to 15%, calling into question Sprint’s “most reliable network” claims.

Root’s study also found that AT&T had far more extensive coverage in those 7 markets. Its testing was able to get at least three-quarter of full strength connections throughout 71% of AT&T’s network in New York compared to 37% of Verizon’s. Even in AT&T’s worst performing market, San Francisco, Root found 75% signal strength in 33% of AT&T’s network compared to 30% in Verizon’s.

By virtue of CDMA’s easier software migration path from 2G to 3G, Verizon has added EV-DO carriers to almost the entirety of its network, and in metropolitan areas 100% of its cell sites support at least one 3G channel. Meanwhile, AT&T had to build an overlay network with new and more expensive infrastructure. AT&T hasn’t completed its HSPA build in all markets—it estimates 75% of the US population is now covered—which explains the big gaps in its coverage map, and in markets where it doesn’t offer 3G it hasn’t installed a 3G base station in every site it offers 2G. The differences in their deployments imply that Verizon would have much more ubiquitous and consistent 3G coverage than AT&T, but as far as actual real-world network coverage goes, that’s not the case, Dicklin said.