Verizon or AT&T iPhone?

I had AT&T for a long time but I recently switched to Verizon because I really couldn't get on AT&Ts 3G network during the day. Even though I stuck with a year old phone I really like the iPhone 4, plus Verizon is great in my area.

I don't see Apple doing major upgrade of the iPhone this year, and pretty satisfied with iOS5. So who do you got Big Red or Big Blue?

The answer depends on where you live. Just go with the one that has better coverage in the areas you'll mainly use the phone.

If you plan to travel internationally at all, AT&T is a better bet since it uses GSM which is a more global standard.

I've had both and am also in Colorado. I prefer Verizon. Less dropped calls better 3G coverage. As schewb said if you plan to travel out of the US AT&T is a better bet.

True Story:

When I moved to the San Fran Bay Area, I decided to get an iPhone. Back then it was the 3GS. After 3 months I was pulling my hair because of AT&T signal issues outside the Stanford Campus. I cancelled my contract.

Last week, I finally decided to get the iPhone 4. This time on Verizon. Good God... night and day difference. I actually enjoy using it now, since you know I have signal everywhere!

Go VZW + iPhone 4.

But then again, it all depends on where you live and what kind of coverage.

What it boils down to is, the iPhone is exactly the same on both AT&T & VZW. So it's a matter of who has better coverage in your area.

Cheers,

M

schweb said:

If you plan to travel internationally at all, AT&T is a better bet since it uses GSM which is a more global standard.

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Isn't the iPhone 5 rumored to have both GSM and CDMA support? This means that if you want to use your Verizon iPhone 5 oversea you only need to buy a temporary phone contract in the country you are traveling to and use their GSM service.

If this is true then it would just about neutralize the overseas debate on which phone service to choose from.

I also live in Colorado - I had the iPhone 3 from AT&T - It was suggested by my co-workers - that I should have bought an iPod touch and a Verizon Phone, the call quality and dropped calls were very bad. I've heard less problems with iPhone 4 but my friends/co-workers still drop calls.

I travel up and down the front range, and go to the mountains a lot and have had no dropped calls - except for 1 area at a customer site, but that may be due to extenuating circumstances. (The signal isn't very good in the back of the building among other issues) Anyway - the Verizon iPhone works like it should - as a phone, and there is 3G everywhere. Anyone that tells you that you can talk and surf at the same time on AT&T, hasn't really tried it. I tried to use WebEx and either I dropped calls, or the network stalled because AT&T's network isn't any good. Great marketing story - real world, never worked for me.

Lastly on the overseas travel - that was a bummer, my Verizon iPhone of course didn't work in Europe. It would have been OK for me as my company pays for my communications. If I were paying my own way - I wouldn't try to use my own device overseas. The charges for data and phone usage are horrendous. I actually have a jailbroken/unlocked iPhone 3 - and just use that with a pre-paid sim card. Then you get minutes at the local rate. Or you could do the wifi-only thing - and use skype to call back to the US. $30/year call any US number - or get your friends to sign on. There is plenty of hotel/café wifi in most major European cities.

IvanLasston said:

Anyone that tells you that you can talk and surf at the same time on AT&T, hasn't really tried it. I tried to use WebEx and either I dropped calls, or the network stalled because AT&T's network isn't any good. Great marketing story - real world, never worked for me.

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UM, no. I talk and surf a pretty fair amount as I travel around the US on business and I've never really run into a case where it doesn't work pretty darn well. Be careful making statements like that, just because it doesn't work for you doesn't mean it doesn't work at all.

That being said, I do spend most of my time in major metropolitan areas but not necessarily big cities.

I have the AT&T iPhone 4 while my wife has the Verizon version. In our area my wife is more likely to drop calls and my service is much cheaper even with hotspot added to my phone. Like everyone says it all depends on where you live because AT&T does have some big signal strength issues in areas like San Francisco and New York.

Also, I do talk and surf quite often as well and have no issues with it either.

baggss said:

UM, no. I talk and surf a pretty fair amount as I travel around the US on business and I've never really run into a case where it doesn't work pretty darn well. Be careful making statements like that, just because it doesn't work for you doesn't mean it doesn't work at all.

That being said, I do spend most of my time in major metropolitan areas but not necessarily big cities.

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Fine, too general. I talked and surfed around the US, I have co-workers who do the same. Many of us suffered from dropped calls. One co-worker took his phone in and the software reported a 93% drop rate Statistics show the same.
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/apple-desktops/242592-there-program-like-publisher-mac.html
That statement was a generalization based on my experience and from talking to my co-workers. That being said, I do live in Colorado, and I tried on several occasions, along the front range in major metropolitan areas that have AT&T 3G to get onto Webex. I either dropped the call or the Webex stopped responding within 20 minutes, the 5 or so times I tried it. So, still, in my experience traveling around the country, and with several of my co-workers, we all had trouble staying connected to data and voice, including in major metropolitan areas.

Lucky for you that it works for you.

Anyone who blanketly says Verizon is better either doesn't travel much, or is just lying.

No one, and I mean no one, can tell you which network is better for you. Only you can make that judgement based on where you plan to use the phone.

I have been to places where AT&T's network has stunk, but I've been to just as many places where people with Verizon phones couldn't get a signal and I could. It just depends.

FWIW, I've also never, ever had a problem talking and using data at the same time on AT&T and I travel a lot for work.

I just got verizon and love the service. I haven't gotten a dropped call yet and it is really fast. .

IvanLasston said:

Fine, too general. I talked and surfed around the US, I have co-workers who do the same. Many of us suffered from dropped calls. One co-worker took his phone in and the software reported a 93% drop rate Statistics show the same.
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/apple-desktops/242592-there-program-like-publisher-mac.html
That statement was a generalization based on my experience and from talking to my co-workers. That being said, I do live in Colorado, and I tried on several occasions, along the front range in major metropolitan areas that have AT&T 3G to get onto Webex. I either dropped the call or the Webex stopped responding within 20 minutes, the 5 or so times I tried it. So, still, in my experience traveling around the country, and with several of my co-workers, we all had trouble staying connected to data and voice, including in major metropolitan areas.

Lucky for you that it works for you.

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1 - Why is there a random link in the middle of your post?

2 - I get it. Where you live in Co it sucks. Fair enough.

3 - Dropped calls and talking and surfing are different things. I've yet to see a case where surfing caused a call to drop but I do get the occasional dropped call. That being said, AT&T had gotten MIUCH better pretty much everywhere I go over the last 3 years or so.

4 - One app that doesn't work doesn't mean that data has stopped. When WebEx didn't work did your e-mail error out? Could you open and surf in Safari? Did you even try or did you just assume AT&T sucked and whine?

5 - My co-worked who have iPhones all have AT&T. No biggie and we stay connected from Maine to Hawaii (literally) with no real issues. Sounds to me like your issues are there in Co and localized to the Front Range. Obviously a spot where AT&T sucks.

1 - I must have cut and paste wrong.
AT&T has most dropped calls, Verizon has least says study
I believe this is the link I was aiming for. But any google search will show that AT&T suffers from dropped calls. But it also shows people are satisfied with the iPhone on AT&T. Fine with me, sounds like you are satisfied with it. I was not so I let my money do the talking.

2 - AT&T has coverage in Colorado, but once you leave the cities/large mountain towns AT&T drops to edge - which happens a lot more than Verizon going to 1xRTT. I've also taken road trips through Wyoming and Montana and had 3G pretty much the whole trip on Verizon, whereas AT&T was mainly edge, except in Jackson Hole Wyoming.

3 - I agree - but as I said, I shouldn't have made a blanket statement. My point of the post - is I was trying to use voice and data at the same time. A WebEx call is a pretty good indication of how well a voice/data connection works because the WebEx is constantly streaming, and voice is on. My WebEx meetings generally last over 20 minutes. I have yet to successfully complete one on the iPhone from AT&T. I either drop voice, or the WebEx stops responding. Fair enough that the two are not inter-related, again my point was, anything that was over - say 10 minutes I either lost voice or WebEx stopped responding. I do not know if other meeting services suffer from the same problem. So yes, it could be the WebEx service that died, but no one else on the call complained about data updating. I guess for general web surfing (generally much more forgiving on data stream) + talking it is OK. For when I was doing small stuff, and small talking it worked. Generally < 10 minutes.

4 - I agree - and I digress again - see above.

5 - My co-workers and I all had AT&T iPhones as well. Arizona, California, Colorado, are where we mainly stay but we travel coast to coast. Yes you could make calls and use data. I am sorry for giving a blanket statement. I am now giving my experiences with the AT&T iPhone vs the Verizon iPhone. YMMV.

Just got back from visiting family in western Michigan. Both wife and I had no 3G where my family lives (very rural area) and both phones dropped to edge. That said both phones worked fine and I was even able to use my hotspot on the AT&T phone although sometimes it was hit and miss.

That's kind of like asking what kind of poison you want to ingest. >_>"

I got a 3gs two years ago, I live in Massachusetts and have traveled up and down the east coast. Honestly AT&T service kind of sucks from Richmond down to Jacksonville- it's spotty edge service at best- and is kind of hit or miss with data usage in Central Florida. That said I personally have no incentive to switch because I get a corporate discount and still have unlimited data. So essentially I get more for less on AT&T than I would on Verizon. But in the Northeast AT&T are roughly equal for where I spend my time (metropolitan areas)