AT&T vs Verizon vs I 81

route81

If you vacation in the Thousand Islands region of New York State or visited Syracuse University then you’ve probably driven along the mostly straight highway hypnosis inducing Interstate 81. While there are a few somewhat urban areas along the drive, most of the time it’s small mountains or fields of grass. When you’re not in one of those urban areas that happen to have Verizon LTE, Verizon has practically no service. At best, its 3G operated at less than one mbps down. AT&T on the other hand had its often mocked “Pho G” HSPA+ (where it says 4G on the iPhone but not LTE) and was getting between 5 and 7 mbps down.

Areas around Rutgers get both AT&T and Verizon LTE with Verizon usually being faster and penetrating buildings better, but when I’m in the middle of nowhere NY or PA I’m happy my iPhones are on AT&T.