Verizon’s 4G LTE service goes live Sunday in 39 cities, growing the field of companies offering fast mobile broadband 4G service. Verizon joins Sprint and T-Mobile which are also hawking wireless services at 4G dataspeeds. Meanwhile lesser-known providers such as Clear and Metro PCS are getting in on the action as well.
Who has the best deals, fastest speeds, best coverage in the U.S.? As you know picking the best – and fastest – wireless broadband service is relative to your needs. Here PCWorld assembled a brief overview of what each competitor is offering. The accompanying chart will break it down even more for you. But one important disclaimer first. The information provided in the chart is a combination of data from PC World tests, vender provided data, and a bit from third-party sources.
Verizon Long Term Evolution (LTE) 4G
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Pros: Verizon has the fastest speeds of any 4G network, at 5 Mbps to 12 Mbps download and 2 Mbps to 5 Mbps upload. The price for hotspot coverage is cheaper than Sprint.
Cons: Phones won’t be available until mid-2011, and the data caps are a downer.
Sprint Wi-Max 4G
Pros: Unlimited data makes Sprint’s 4G a haven for data hogs, and solid phones are available in HTC’s Evo 4G and Samsung’s Epic 4G. Cheap hotspot hardware at $50 per month after rebate.
Cons: Average speeds are slower than Verizon at 3 Mbps to 6 Mbps download and up to 1 Mbps upload, and more expensive. Hotspot service is a hefty $30 per month on phones.
T-Mobile HSPA+
Pros: Service doesn’t cost extra, good phones in the G2 and MyTouch 4G, video chat over 4G. Laptop USB stick is free with two-year contract.
Cons: Not really 4G, with slower speeds of 1.5 Mbps to 3.5 in testing. No standalone hotspots available.
Metro PCS LTE 4G
Pros: Dirt cheap at $55 per month.
Cons: You get what you pay for, with average speeds of 700 kbps in testing, according to GigaOM. Samsung Craft feature phone costs $300.
Clear Wi-Max 4G
Pros: Cheapest unlimited hotspot coverage at $45 per month with $99 hotspot. Same network as Sprint.
Cons: No phones, no 3G fallback in cities without 4G.
Clearwire Rover Wi-Max 4G
Pros: Maximum flexibility with plans at $5 per day, $20 per week and $50 per month, and no-contract Rover Puck hotspot for $150. Same network as Sprint.
Cons: No phones, no 3G fallback in cities without 4G.
The smartphone war has heated up over the last few years. While there were plenty of smartphones and PDAs out there in the wild well before the launch of the original iPhone, we all know what happened to the market the moment the iDevice hit the scene. And now, as our smartphones get smarter, and there’s further integration with our favorite social networking sites –like Facebook–, it’s come to TechCrunch‘s attention that the social networking giant is now currently working on their very own, low-end phone.
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Reportedly, Joe Hewitt and Matthew Papakipos have been drafted into the project of building the “Facebook phone,” and “are secretly working on the project” right now. All of this is coming down the pipe from a “source who has knowledge of the project,” as all of these things usually do. Facebook is apparently concerned with the presence that Apple and Google have in the market, and the way that they have so eloquently integrated social networking into their devices. We’ve seen how well that Android integrates the service, and there’s apps in the App Store to make sure that your contacts in your iPhone are synced, too. Apparently, Facebook sees these companies as competitors now. However, the report suggests that Facebook would actually market their phone in the lower-end, where it wouldcost something like $50 or less. We’re not sure that’s necessarily a direct competitor to the iPhone or any high-end Android device.
There’s plenty of questions in here. But, as Facebook quickly clarified, they aren’t working on a phone. However, it looks like they went out of their way to put a “not going to happen” sticker on this rumor. Most companies would have just said something along the lines of “We do not comment on rumors,” or something to that effect. But, no, Facebook’s PR team managed to put a lot of effort into their denial, saying that Facebook is continuously finding new ways to integrate their services, but that they are notworking on a phone.
Both Hewitt and Papakipos have worked in the mobile space, and we imagine that if anyone anywhere near Facebook would be named in this report, it would be them. But, does Facebook really see an opportunity to make a super-cheap device that integrates your contacts into Facebook, despite the fact that many people out their already have a device that does exactly that? If TechCrunch is accurate in their speculation and sources, then it looks like within the next year or so Facebook will pop out their own “Facebook phone.” Will the masses race towards it like the company would certainly hope they would? Guess we’ll just have to wait and find out. Let us know in the comments what you think of a Facebook phone.
Over the weekend, the New York Times reported a rather surprising story: as it turns out, it’s not AT&T’s fault when your iPhone drops a call or fetches your e-mail at a rate of one message per hour. The problem is actually that your iPhone is poorly designed.
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No, really. That’s what it said.
The claim was made in Randall Stross’s Digital Domain column and is based on data from Global Wireless Solutions and Root Wireless, two companies which test cellular networks. Global Wireless results claims that AT&T has 40 to 50 percent higher throughput than its competitors. Root Wireless also found that the network had better average speeds (unquantified in the article), and stronger signals to boot. iPhone users who see worse results, Stross postulates, are running into problems because of poorly designed circuitry in their handsets.
I think this qualifies. Granted, it’s not AT&T making this claim—but AT&T is a client of Global Wireless, and there’s no information about how Global’s results came to be reported alongside those of Root Wireless. Maybe Stross just happened to get two independent press releases on the same day. Maybe.
I checked out the Websites of both Global Wireless and Root Networks, hoping to find some information about their testing methodology. Nada on Global’s; I infer from the Times article that they have a bunch of guys in vans with cell phones. A large bunch, who made 5 million voice and data calls across 3 million miles of road. Root’s process is rather interesting; it collects data from apps running on smartphones. Unfortunately, Root can’t run its application on the iPhone itself, due to the limitation in background-processing, throwing yet another question into the mix. The company’s run 17 million tests on other phones, though, and its results are published at CNet Review’s carrier coverage page.
Those testing numbers, incidentally, are why I wanted to know more about the tests. They’re too high. Tell me you tested a network 10,000 times, and that sounds reasonable; say you’ve made 5 million phone calls, and I start dividing by 365. (Nearly ten calls a minute, year-round, no breaks.) I’m not saying they haven’t done it; I’m observing that is a number designed to shut off the critical thinking function in the listener.
The main reason I’m skeptical: many of the high-volume bloggers and tweeters are also the kind of people who run network bandwidth monitors 24/7. So am I, using a utility called MenuMeters. Eventually, you get a feel for your actual speed with plain old human perception. It’s just not credible that a speed difference of 50 percent would have gone unnoticed among this crowd. When one commercial provider has a service that knocks everyone else into a cocked hat, we talk about it.
Likewise, many folks were AT&T subscribers before June 29, 2007, and probably would have noticed if their bandwidth took a hit when they switched from a non-iPhone to an Apple gadget. And, of course, thanks to the iPhone’s global availability, the third dog that isn’t barking is the lack of corroborating evidence from other countries that the iPhone is bottlenecking their speed.
So with all due respect to the Times, I’m taking this with a kilograin of salt until it’s corroborated elsewhere. So far, that’s not coming; David Reed, designer of the UDP protocol, reported to David Farber’s Interesting-People mailing list on Sunday that if you test the AT&T network with high-performance measuring tools and a 3G modem, you can expect the same results you see on an iPhone.
Just 3% of iPhone customers account for 40% of the data traffic on its network, the company says. It plans to introduce a pricing system that discourages heavy uses such as streaming audio and video.
IPhone users guilty of hogging data could see their phone bills fattening.
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In a presentation to investors Wednesday, AT&T’s head of consumer services, Ralph de la Vega, said that just 3% of iPhone users generate 40% of the data traffic on AT&T’s cellphone network.
As such AT&T, the exclusive carrier of the iPhone, is likely to introduce a pricing system that would penalize heavy data users, encouraging them “to either reduce or modify their usage so they don’t crowd out the other customers in those same cell sites,” he said.
De la Vega did not offer specifics on pricing changes.
By using data-intensive applications such as streaming audio and video services, a small number of iPhone users have been putting a huge burden on AT&T’s network, causing lackluster performance in New York City, San Francisco and other major markets.
“We’ve got to get to those customers and have them recognize that they need to change their patterns or have to face other things,” De la Vega told investors at UBS.
In general, smart-phone users pay a fixed monthly rate for unlimited data, but AT&T and other companies have found that the explosion of phone applications that must connect to the Internet has caused a surge in the amount of data users are consuming.
De la Vega said AT&T will have added 2,000 cell sites this year and plans to continue investing heavily to keep its networks fast.
“What we’re seeing in the U.S. today, in terms of smart-phone penetration and 3G data,” he said, “nobody else is seeing on the rest of the planet.”
Complaining to AT&T about poor wireless coverage has never been easier thanks to a new iPhone app.
Mark the Spot is no prank that somehow slipped past the App Store’s censors. This is an official iPhone app from AT&T letting you report dropped calls, failed calls, lack of coverage, data failure, and poor voice quality.
In the app’s information section, AT&T says it will use the reports to “optimize and enhance the network. Problems will be clustered to highlight areas for investigation.” This app is as close as we’ll see to AT&T admitting it’s got a coverage problem.
The last few weeks have not been good for the carrier. First came Verizon Wireless’ attack ads, which showed major gaps in AT&T’s 3G coverage. Then came theultimately failed lawsuit from AT&T to stop the ads. In the meantime, AT&T launched some terrible ads of its own. But I think the real killer was a Consumer Reports survey that ranked AT&T last among the major carriers in customer satisfaction. For all AT&T can say about the iPhone’s success and customers’ low turnover rates, you can’t ignore unhappy people.
So now we’ve got “Mark the Spot,” which at least makes you feel like your grievances are being heard. Yeah, it’s kind of silly — I find it odd that AT&T doesn’t already know where its problems are — but I like the idea. Here’s AT&T admitting, albeit indirectly, that it’s got problems. And instead of talking about those issues in another ad, which would be really embarrassing, “Mark the Spot” communicates directly to iPhone owners. It’s a creative solution that actually takes advantage of the iPhone’s ease of use.
Kudos to AT&T for taking a different stab at its coverage problems, even if we don’t know how exactly the data from Mark the Spot will be used.
Just one warning to frustrated iPhone owners: AT&T says that multiple submissions from one person, for the same problem in the same area, won’t be given extra weight. Your angry Mark the Spot spam won’t bring relief any faster.
With IDC predicting the iPhone App Store could top 300,000 apps next year, perhaps the race for numbers should end.
Rather than looking for ways to approve more applications, Apple might want to start saying “yes” to a much smaller number. Quality over quantity, don’t you know?
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I am quite aware that this may seem to be at odds with my earlier comments about Apple’s monopolies–the Apps and iTunes music stores–being bad for consumers.
However, they show no signs of going away and I am a realist: Apple should shift from trying to have the most applications to having the best ones.
Among other things, this will require the iPhone to consistently be the best applications platform, which it arguably isn’t now, following release of Motorola’s Droidand the latest version of Google’s Android OS.
Maybe the next-generation iPhone, supposedly being tested in the wilds of San Francisco, will solve this problem by leapfrogging Android handsets.
(My colleague, Tony Bradley, almost suggests it will be impossible for Apple to approve enough apps to reach 300,000 in 2010, even though developer interest remains strong).
Besides hardware improvements–multitasking, faster networks, etc.– there is much Apple can do to improve the iPhone apps experience:
Stop approving applications that aren’t significant improvements on what already exists. Apple should offer a collection of only quality apps. If developers can’t move their category forward, they don’t need to be on the iPhone.
Allow customers to try applications, especially expensive ones, before they buy. There is a limit to what people are willing to risk when refunds are few and far between. iPhone apps should be sold on a “satisfaction guaranteed” basis. Not forever, but at least long enough to test them and make sure they meet the customer’s need
If Apple makes approvals harder to come by, it needs to give developers some guidance as to their chance for approval before they are deeply and expensively committed to a project.
There are already too many “me, too” apps in the iPhone store, so some cuts might be a good idea. I would oppose dropping apps merely because of slow sales–goodbye niche apps–but if something is a slow seller in a popular category there may be a reason.
In short, Apple needs to make it more difficult to get into the App Store as well as more difficult for sub-par applications to stay. The iPhone has so far differentiated itself on quality of experience. One way to battle an open platform, such as Android, is to make exclusivity a feature that customers want.
An iPhone model that doesn’t officially exist began appearing recently in one developer’s application analytics, possibly indicating that Apple is field testing the next version of its combination iPod and smartphone. Apparently Pandav’s iBart application has been showing usage from an iPhone model identifying itself as iPhone3,1, which is a higher number than any of the current shipping models, according to Mac Rumors.
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iPhone2,1 identifies the current iPhone 3GS and began appearing in developer’s logs several months ahead of its release, too. The iPhone3,1 identifier first appeared in the iPhone’s firmware back in August, leading to speculation that it would be used with the fourth generation model.
Apple isn’t saying what it plans to pack into the next generation iPhone, but that hasn’t stopped the rumor mill from speculating that it will include a multi-core processor and compatibility with Verizon’s cell service. Assuming Apple sticks with its established pattern, the next iPhone model should roll out sometime in July or August 2010.
Did your iPhone catch the new “Duh” iPhone virus? If so, Apple says it’s your own fault for jailbreaking the iPhone. iPhones that have not been jailbroken are not susceptible to the virus, and jailbreakers can take steps to protect themselves.
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The “Duh” virus is the third to target jailbroken iPhones. In a nutshell, Duh seeks out jailbroken (and vulnerable) iPhones and iPods. Once it locates them, the virus alters the root password of the iPhone or iPod and proceeds to download harmful files to the device. Jailbreaking is the method of unlocking and hacking into the iPhone. It removes a number of controls placed in the device by Apple and permits users to access a much wider range of applications that aren’t officially sanction via the iPhone Apps Store.
You can’t blame Apple too much for its stance on the recently released virus that attacks iPhones. Apple noted that, “These hacks [jailbreaking] not only violate the warranty, they will also cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably.” If you don’t jailbreak your iPhone, this virus isn’t going to be a problem for you. That means most people (92% – 94%) should be safe.
Because jailbreaking installs SSH networking software, there is a password vulnerability that is easy for viruses to circumvent. There is an easy step to take, however, to a protect jailbroken iPhones. Users can go to Cydia to download and the install the MobileTerminal app. Once that application is installed, users only need to the default password from “alpine” to pretty much anything else.
If you’re taking the risk of jailbreaking your iPhone, it isn’t that much more work to provide yourself with at least a modicum of safety.
A second iPhone worm is in the wild, and unlike the jokey Australian worm authored by hacker prankster Ikee two weeks ago, this one is dangerous.
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Unlike Ikee’s hack, which merely rick-rolled owners of infected iPhones, the new Dutch variant targets customers of the bank ING. When triggered, the worm redirects users visiting the banking site to an address in Lithuania which shows a fake login screen for ING online banking. It is essentially a phishing attack run on compromised iPhones.
The panic that will inevitably spread from this story is unjustified. First, if you are a regular iPhone customer you are safe, even if you are in the Netherlands. This is because, like the Ikee hack before it, the new worm will only work on a jailbroken, or hacked iPhone. Further, you will have to explicitly install SSH remote access, and then you will have to leave the root password at its default, which is “alpine”.
If that means nothing to you, you don’t have any reason to worry. If that does mean something to you, shame on you! You should go change that password right now.
And don’t forget, you’ll also need to live in Holland and to be a customer of the ING bank for this to work. This could explain why this “security breach”, according to the BBC, has only affected a few people: “The number of infected phones was thought to be in the hundreds rather than thousands.” And how does it spread itself? “The worm could jump from phone to phone among owners using the same wi-fi hotspot.”
While we shouldn’t ignore the threat of malware to our increasingly powerful and connected mobile devices, nor should we panic. The news of a genuine iPhone-killing piece of software seems to be treated with the same glee as news of a virus for the Mac. Thankfully, none yet exist.
No, no, no, AT&T. I realize you’re trying to fight fire with fire with your new “side-by-side” ad, but when you play with fire, somebody’s going to get burned. Taking on Verizon head on by comparing your services is not exactly a win for you, especially when two of your points (most popular smartphones and 100,000 apps) are pretty much thanks to a single handset that rhymes with Sly Stone.
And even claiming a “better” 3G experience seems questionable, given your checkered history in that department. But yes, I know you have to do something after your failed attempt to sue Verizon over its ads and Verizon’s unbridled smarm. Perhaps you should have considered being the bigger person and not sinking to Verizon’s level. But if you’re going to fight in the streets, maybe you could have at least invested in a little more than Luke Wilson and a big board o’ magnets. (The full ad is embedded below.)
But now you’ve opened up a can of worms. You realize how this goes, right? To paraphrase Sean Connery from The Untouchables, you pull a Luke Wilson, Verizon pulls an Owen Wilson; you take ‘em to the courts, they take you to the cleaners. If this escalation keeps up, then pretty soon Verizon’s ads are going to be quirky, two-hour long Wes Anderson-directed affairs with Jason Schwartzman pondering the pursuit of life, love, and decent 3G coverage. Possibly in stop-motion.
