mobile broadband dragrace, Cingular vs. Verizon

[nobody_here]

I went into the local Verizon store today to see what the latest phones available were. While in there the Manager just kept going on and on about how fast their Broadband Wireless service is.....i let him sit there and "wow" me with how fast it was, he just kept clicking on website after website, streaming video, etc.....and granted it was fast enough....but i mentioned i had a Cingular Broadband 860 card that was "just as fast" and it was on

so he challenged me to a duel of sorts, of course my Dell D620 was in the car, and i had some time to kill, so hey, sure, whatever you like....so i grabbed it

we got both systems rebooted and all initial HDD activity stopped....we launch our browsers, typed in the same address, and clicked together and bam, mine was done a good 5-10 seconds before his....okay, lets try another site, same thing, over and over, i even let him choose the sites

so then since we are running different laptops with different browsers i suggested we run simple ping tests through the command prompt to eliminate these factors, and bam bam bam, i completely mopped the floor with him, so i finally cant resist and look at him and ask, "can you hear me now"? ROFL.....the young Asst Mgr was watching the whole thing and he was just laughing along...LOL

then we ran a test at bandwidthspeedtest.com just to be sure, he comes in at 400'ish kbps, mine is hitting 750'ish kbps

keep in mind the Acceleration client built into the Cingular software was turned to the highest quality, so no or minimal compression being used, oh, and i had one single bar of signal strength and was in a 3G network area, and of course, sitting in the Verizon store he had a wide open EvDo signal, or whatever they call it

it was just funny and interesting, he was so impressed with his service until then...

i told him up until about a week or so ago it wasnt as fast though, just the other day Cingular updated their client software and the speed really improved

fun day, funnest time i ever had in a cell phone store for sure, but he was a good sport about it, he didn't make any excuses

 

[Dangman]

Damn. Now I know which broadband wireless service to go for. LOL!

 

[trckn4life]

wow,..good to know. How much does mobile broadband run from Cingular? Is it discounted if you add it to a cell plan?

 

[Martyr]

so lets see

overpriced
crappy speed
low features



yup, mobile broadband pretty much sucks in the states.

 

[nobody_here]

wow,..good to know. How much does mobile broadband run from Cingular? Is it discounted if you add it to a cell plan?

i dont know how the pricing compares, it's paid for by my company, we have like 300 phones (Smartphones) plus probably 100 broadband aircards, all with unlimited everything so my guess is with that kind of volume we get pretty good deals, i know we had the Cingular 2125 phones before the public had them and now we are getting an upgrade to the 3125's for all the phones for free, plus bluetooth headsets, etc.......we get the hook up

so lets see

overpriced
crappy speed
low features



yup, mobile broadband pretty much sucks in the states.

i am guessing you dont have one

actually i am very happy with it, of course it is overpriced right now, it's relatively new, but the speed is actually fine, ok, so it takes 3.2 seconds for a page to load instead of .3 seconds.....when you're riding down the road and need to check email or go to a site, it works very well and works anywhere a Cingular phone will pickup, and what features is it lacking?

and i dont have to worry about finding a hot spot, or paying for WiFi access in airports, etc.....i always have the internet unless i am in B.F.E., but if you plan your trip right and make sure you have the resources you need before you get out in the middle of nowhere, it's not a big deal

 

[movax]

so lets see

overpriced
crappy speed
low features



yup, mobile broadband pretty much sucks in the states.

It's no secret that in America, a *lot* of services & products are marketed to one target: corporations. They can afford a several hundred thousand dollars per month for unlimited data plans over every form of networking known to mankind.

Unfortunaly, most of us Average Joes really can't shell out $100+/mo for unlimited voice & data from the providers.

 

[nobody_here]

It's no secret that in America, a *lot* of services & products are marketed to one target: corporations. They can afford a several hundred thousand dollars per month for unlimited data plans over every form of networking known to mankind.

Unfortunaly, most of us Average Joes really can't shell out $100+/mo for unlimited voice & data from the providers.

yeah, last time i called the automated account system it would tell me the monthly balance and minutes used....needless to say minutes used were in the tens of thousands and balance was thousands of dollars

but we dont pay anywhere near what an individual would pay on a per device basis because of our volume, just like with Dell, we get insanely low prices because when we order PC's or Laptops we order alot at once and do it regularly

 

[Dew]

then we ran a test at bandwidthspeedtest.com just to be sure, he comes in at 400'ish kbps, mine is hitting 750'ish kbps

You must be in a UMTS area. Areas with EDGE/GPRS only(Most of the US) will not even come close to matching the Verizon card in any area with service. (No, I am not a fan of either one, I am a Cingular Customer).

1xRTT (Slow mode for Sprint/Verizon) is 144Kbps
EDGE is 56Kbps, IIRC

 

[nobody_here]

You must be in a UMTS area. Areas with EDGE/GPRS only(Most of the US) will not even come close to matching the Verizon card in any area with service. (No, I am not a fan of either one, I am a Cingular Customer).

1xRTT (Slow mode for Sprint/Verizon) is 144Kbps
EDGE is 56Kbps, IIRC

funny thing is, i carry the Cingular phone and wireless card for work, and also carry a Verizon phone which is my personal phone, and from a coverage standpoint, Verizon is much better and drops my calls much less frequently than Cingular

tell you what, i am riding down Interstate 85 Southbound at exit number 14 in S.C., not in a 3G network area, single bar of signal strength at the moment, and i will run another test right now and post back in a minute

 

[nobody_here]

100.9 kbps at the moment

this is about as slow as it gets typically

oh, forgot to mention, i had Yahoo IM and this Firefox page open while doing the test, let me close out all this and run it again now and see what i get

 

[Ashton]

I agree with the guy that said the US's services suck. If you want a comparison, I'm with nextel (acctually Boost Mobile, but it uses the Nextel network --- and app $10 a day for UNLIMITED DATA!) Nextel's PCS-esque network, which uses the iDEN phone line has 2 speeds. Standard, which is 19.9kbps, and WiDEN, which is anywhere from 192 - 300kbps.

I have YET to find a palce I can get the WiDEN service nearby. and I live <3 hours from Atlanta, GA!

However, to be fair, I have NEVER dropped a datacall; but it has always been 19.9kbps app (I have some spikes that go upto 28kbps)

IIRC, the priding per month is something like this (for consumer market, no idea buisiness)

Sprint/Nextel: $65
Verizon: $40 ($80 for broadband (supposedly in the Mbps range, but I'm told it's almost inpossible to get it outside of places like Atlanta, NYC, etc))
Cingular: $60-$80 dep on if it's PDA or Laptop data