AT&T vs. T-Mobile vs. Verizon.
In our last blog, I mentioned that went on a trip, specifically Tallulah Gorge. The two top items that were most important to me were Power and an Internet connection.
I covered being powered up on the road; the easy part but the tougher part is getting a consistent internet connection.
Before our trip, my google search shows that Verizon had the best coverage, followed by AT&T, and then T-Mobile. So instead of settling with just one network, I decided to go with all three! Prepaid was the way to go especially since this is only a short two weeks.
The Prepaid Cell carrier (MVNO) that I choose with Verizon was Visible.
The second from AT&T was Red Pocket Mobile, and finally, for T-Mobile it was Tello.
I know what you’re thinking…. “Is he actually carrying 3 phones?” Well, you got me. Sort of.
One of my Android phones allows for 2 sims, so I had two services on one phone. So I had T-Mobile and AT&T on one phone, and Verizon on another. Being the geek, I had two phones on my dash all the way going up north just to see who had the best coverage!
On Android phones, there is a dBm app that allows you to see how strong the cell signal is. One the way there, on the major highways, all three networks were about the same!
That was until…
We made a trip up towards the Great Smoky Mountains. The only network that still provided coverage was indeed Verizon Network via Visible.
Visible also allows for hotspot tethering, so like me, you’ll be able to keep your devices connected so you can continue to work while on the go!
Bottom Line: If you were wondering if you should switch networks especially when traveling, I can confirm that Verizon is the network to use when coverage is important.
BUT WAIT!
VISIBLE which is a MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Provider) had good coverage but if you do have good coverage, can anyone tell me why you would not be happy with this speed test experience?
Speed aside (the speed 1.54 is actually still decent for casual operations), what’s just as important is the Ping rate. If you notice the ping rate is 247ms, that can be an eternity waiting for a page to load, which converts to an undesirable experience.
The reason why I bring this up is because I noticed a lot of videos and bloggers mentioning that Visible (Verizon) network is plenty fast, but the problem is, they never look at the ping rate. Anything else contributes to an undesirable experience? Look at the Jitter.
It is for this reason, I cannot recommend Visible if you use data as your primary source, however if you simply need connection (up on the mountains), this would be a good solution. The other MVNO on other networks has been typically about 19ms. A huge difference!
Unit next time,
Mike
Mikegyver.com
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