Some Insights from August Travels
I am compiling some information based on trips I've made this month.
Here are some places I've travelled and logged data for
Levittown, PA area to:
Harrisburg, PA
Newark, NJ
There are some issues with parts of my testing that are getting worked out but I have enough data to make the following conclusions
From a speed standpoint, T-Mobile is still leading. They are averaging around 200 Mbps. Their latency/ping times are better in areas where N71 and N41 exist.
Verizon is best in regards to ping/latency (followed by AT&T) where T-Mobile is not using N41/N71. In areas where T-Mobile is using N41/N71, T-Mobile may have a slight edge on Verizon. Occasionally, I still see some packet loss on T-Mobile's network when not on N41/N71 but no packet loss on the other carriers.
AT&T and Verizon are both averaging around 40 Mbps. In my opinion, this is due to Verizon still deploying their N77 network and testing things out. AT&T still has a great LTE network which makes them about the same.
From a coverage standpoint, Verizon was really good on my trip to Harrisburg. T-Mobile was a close second. AT&T did not fair as well in this department for some reason.
For coverage on trip to Newark, NJ, T-Mobile did really well here as well as Verizon (very similar to Harrisburg). AT&T was last but not too bad.
For quality/congestion, I would say that Verizon and T-Mobile were best on the Harrisburg trip. For the Newark trip, T-Mobile was best (a lot of mid-band and N71). They did not get bad until I approached Elizabeth (outskirts of Newark). Verizon and AT&T were about the same throughout the whole trip.
For all AT&T and Verizon, it was neat to see 4 or 5 carrier aggregation as I got closer to Newark (congested areas). At times, they showed up to 100 Mhz of aggregation. T-Mobile did some of this but they didn't have to compensate as much due to mid-band already have 100Mhz + of spectrum.
My tower/cell density measurements seem to line-up for the Harrisburg trip fairly well. AT&T was last in number of cell-ids. Even on the trip to Newark, AT&T seemed to have less tower deployments but seemed to load those towers down with more cells ids.
T-Mobile beats Verizon and AT&T in regards to tower density due to separate N41 and N71 deployments in some cases. The Newark trip had them as first in number of towers but last in cell-ids. I'm assuming the high-capacity N41 and longer range N71 may help in some cases.
For band anlysis, AT&T and T-Mobile made heavy-use of band 2 (some 66 for T-Mobile too) during Harrisburg trip. Verizon had band 66. For the Newark trip, T-Mobile used either N71/N41 for 50% of the trip and band 66 for the other half. Verizon was on N77 or N5 (cumulatively) for half the time it was on band 66.
Verizon Insights
Band 77 Coverage:
N77 coverage was intermittent North of Trenton NJ on Route 1. It came back for short period of time near Sand Hills, NJ but didn't become consistent again until New Brunswick, NJ (on Turnpike at that point). On the trip back from Newark on NJ transit, there was no Band 77. It seemed to be only active on the I-95/NJ Turnpike side.
Earlier in the month (when I went to Harrisburg area), I was attempting to use U.S. mobile test Verizon service but did not see any band 77. I'm assuming this was issue with either sim card or carrier. I have since gone back to Verizon prepaid and that is shown in trip to Newark, NJ.
Harrisburg Trip:
Coverage:
For the trip to Harrisburg, Verizon appeared to the best carrier in regards to coverage on the PA turnpike.
Level/RSRP < -122
15 Points
Quality <= -19 (Most Likely Congestion because signal still fairly strong)
144 Points
Bad Quality and RSRP (times when low quality most likely result of bad signal strength)
Data Speeds/Throughput (55 Tests)
Ping : 56.8 Milleseconds
Downlink Speeds: 76.335 Mbps
Ping STDDEV: 12.857 Milliseconds
No Packet Loss on Any of the testing
Newark Trip (Up on Route1/Turnpike and Back on NJ Transit)
Coverage:
Level/RSRP <= -122
21 Points
Quality <= -19 (lots of congestion due to traffic in areas travelled)
161 Points
Bad Quality and RSRP (low signal strength causing low quality)
10 Points
Data Speed/Throughput (16 Tests)
Ping Average : 51.4 Milleseconds
Downlink Speeds Average: 39.39 Mbps
Ping STDDEV: 11.556 Milliseconds
No Packet Loss on Any of the testing
Slow Downloads: 1 Point near New Brunswick, NJ which seemed to be congestion on backhaul (not radio-network)
AT&T Insights
There is no mid-band for AT&T yet in my area so we will skip that part.
Harrisburg Trip:
Coverage:
Level/RSRP <= -122
79 Points
Quality <= -19
191 Points
Bad Quality and RSRP
54 Points
Due to technical issue, I was not able to capture ATT data performance for this trip.
Newark Trip (Up on Route1/Turnpike and Back on NJ Transit)
Coverage:
Level/RSRP <= -122
6 Points
Quality <= -19
93 Points
Bad Quality as Result of Bad Signal
4 Points
Data Speed/Throughput (22 Tests)
Ping Average : 48 Millseconds
Downlink Speeds Average: 37 Mbps
Ping STDDEV: 18.5 Milliseconds
No Packet Loss on Any of the testing
Slow Downloads: Issue with Testing this part
T-Mobile Insights
Band N71 Coverage
On the trip to/from Harrisburg, Band 71 disappeared West of King of Prussia. For the trip to and from Newark, N71 disappeared just South of Plainsboro, NJ and returned as we approached Newark.
Band N41 Coverage
On the trip to/from Harrisburg, Band 41 disappeared West of King of Prussia. On the trip to Newark, it appeared to stop around the same point as N71 (just South of Plainsboro, NJ).
Harrisburg Trip
Coverage:
Level/RSRP <= -122
36 Points
Quality <= -19
129 Points
Bad Quality as a Result of Bad Signal
15 Points
Data Speed/Throughput (6 Tests)
Ping Average : 104 Milliseconds
Downlink Speeds Average: 188 Mbps
Ping STDDEV: 67 Milliseconds
3.3 % Packet Loss
Slow Downloads: Issue with Testing this part
Newark (Only to Newark due to issues with testing)
Coverage:
Level/RSRP <= -122
No Points
Quality <= -19
37 Points (Only as we got closer to NYC and NJ Turnpike)
Bad Quality as a Result of Bad Signal
0 Points
Data Speed/Throughput (6 Tests)
Ping Average : 46.2 Milliseconds
Downlink Speeds Average: 167 Mbps
Ping STDDEV: 10 Milliseconds
0 % Packet Loss
Slow Downloads: Issue with Testing this part
Carrier Aggregation
All 3 carriers did a lot of carrier aggregation as I got close to New Brunswick area (up to 100 Mhz). Also seen some of this as we got closer to Newark. These are highly congested area.
Here is a sample of some of the 5CA (20/20/20/20/20) plots
Verizon
AT&T
Another measurement I like to add is node and cell density. This shows the number of individual NODES (cell sites) and CELL-IDs.
Node/Cell Density
Trip to/From Harrisburg (PA Turnpike)
Verizon: 122 Nodes, 417 Unique Cells
AT&T: 137 Nodes, 349 Unique Cells
T-Mobile: 193 Nodes. 397 Unique Cell
This lines up with coverage analysis. AT&T not as dense. T-Mobile has more cell sites due to separate N41/N71 towers in some areas. Verizon seems to be loading more cells on each tower.
Trip to Newark, NJ (Route 1 and NJ Turnpike)
Verizon: 59 Nodes, 116 Unique Cells
AT&T: 41 Nodes, 112 Unique Cells
T-Mobile: 63 Nodes, 107 Unique Cells
Bands Seen
Harrisburg
Verizon
AT&T
T-Mobile
Newark
Verizon
AT&T
T-Mobile
