Re: Maps to Compare AT&T, T-Mobile, US Cellular, & Verizon Mobile Coverage and US State of the Mobile Union 1H 2021

On 10/6/2021 4:27 AM, Wade Garrett wrote:
> On 10/5/21 8:58 PM, YK wrote:
>> On 10/6/2021 1:24 PM, nospam wrote:
>>>> Giving up significant geographic coverage in order to gain a small 
>>>> speed increase is not something that a lot of people would be 
>>>> willing to accept.
>>>
>>> there is no need to give up 'significant geographic coverage' when
>>> using t-mobile, or at&t for that matter.
>>
>> Don't know about coverage but Verizon lost almost everywhere in speed.
> 
> Yeah, it's really annoying having to wait that extra quarter or 
> half-second for a complex page to load on Verizon. A real loser, they 
> are ;-)

LOL, also remember that only a small fraction of wireless users even 
have 5G phones yet, and Verizon has consistently had the fastest LTE speeds.

I like the PC Magazine survey row for "% above 25Mb/s" since below that 
is where you begin to actually notice speed differences on a phone. AT&T 
was at 78%, T-Mobile was at 72%, and Verizon was at 71%.

Is anyone really going to trade significantly poorer T-Mobile coverage 
in exchange for 1% fewer places where the data speed was 25Mb/s or 
greater?! Unlikely. Also note that Verizon had a maximum download speed 
of around 2x that of AT&T or T-Mobile, no doubt because of mmWave 5G.

Verizon's philosophy has been that having the fastest LTE speeds, and 
concentrating their Capex on mmWave 5G for home broadband and IOT is a 
more efficient use of their resources, especially, because unlike AT&T, 
Verizon has limited FTTH (except in areas with FIOS). T-Mobile's 
philosophy has been to add low-band 5G to existing LTE sites, since 
T-Mobile's LTE speeds were so slow. It's relatively inexpensive to add 
5G to an existing LTE tower, and it also gives T-Mobile the ability to 
claim that they have the most 5G. T-Mobile has said that it is 
interested in home broadband but that requires mmWave 5G, their low-band 
5G and LTE home broadband shows about 40Mb/s in independent tests 
<https://www.cnet.com/home/internet/t-mobile-5g-home-internet-review/>. 
It's also no bargain; I can get AT&T fiber, at 300Mb/s for about the 
same price ($35 + $10 equipment fee + taxes and fees).

The problem with T-Mobile's approach is that it doesn't help them 
penetrate the government and corporate markets, markets that require 
more ubiquitous coverage, and where T-Mobile has less than 10% market 
share. Even in my own small city, we have outlying areas where the only 
coverage is on Verizon, so efforts by the other carriers to get our City 
to change, even at significant cost savings, have been unsuccessful. The 
differences are small, and only show up in the fringes, but they are 
important, especially since those fringe areas tend to have more 
public-safety issues.