Wireless carriers seem to be obsessed with the speeds that their LTE networks can provide now, and will provide in the future. While downlink and uplink speeds are important factors in determining the consumer experience, an often overlooked metric is network latency.
Latency is defined as the time it takes for a source to send a packet of data to a receiver. Latency is typically measured in milliseconds. The lower the latency (the fewer the milliseconds) the better the network performance.
With all that in mind, we at FierceWireless, with our partner OpenSignal, are aiming to change the focus of how network performance is measured. FierceWireless and OpenSignal are reporting the network latency speeds of the Tier 1 U.S. wireless carriers, a partnership that started last month.
In November, Sprint (NYSE:S) continued to post the highest latency speeds in LTE transmissions, as it did in October. However, AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) managed to draw even with T-Mobile US (NYSE:TMUS) in terms of LTE latency, removing the gap between the two GSM-based carriers in last month's numbers. Indeed, AT&T managed to pull ahead of T-Mobile in some 3G measurements. Special report