A year ago, AT&T's (NYSE:T) mobile network often came in last in mobile broadband network tests. This year, PCMag.com found that AT&T ranked tops in the majority of the 18 U.S. cities PCMag.com tested.
Sprint's (NYSE:S) 3G data network came in first in Boston, outperforming AT&T, Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) and T-Mobile USA. But in the rest of the country AT&T was ranked number one.
Sascha Segan, managing editor for mobile devices at PCMag Digital Network, indicated that AT&T's mobile data service was more likely to experience connection problems than its rivals, but that downloads over the AT&T network were generally much faster.
"They were often so much faster than the competition that it made up for the dropouts," Segan said.
PCMag's test method consisted of using laptops equipped with wireless data modems instead of mobile phones. More than a dozen testers visited eight to 10 locations in each city to measure network performance. PCMag then determined rankings based on upload and download speeds as well as the number of successful connections.
The results mimic what PC World found when it surveyed 13 cities earlier this year. In February, the website PC World reached the same conclusion in a survey of 13 cities.
For more:
- see this Boston Globe article
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