The ARCHchart study on mobile broadband network performance of WCDMA based mobile network operators is the latest in At&t 3G speed bashing. According to the report At&t achieved an average download speed of 1,037 kbps across the country while in New York just 767 kbps, one of the poorest in the study. The report is based on the data speed and latency measurements collected for 268 wireless carriers operating within 103 different countries worldwide, using a smartphone software application available on iPhone, Android and BlackBerry devices. This approach has allowed ARCchart to collect over two million individual test readings from tens of thousands of users who have conducted numerous tests for virtually every mobile carrier in virtually every country in the world. In the US, a total of 162,000 test readings were collected for the two national UMTS carriers, AT&T and T-Mobile.
To place AT&T’s performance in a global context, the study shows that neighbouring Rogers Wireless in Canada is comfortably delivering an average throughput of 1,330 kbps to its customers, while SFR in France and Japan’s NTT DoCoMo both average about 1,500 kbps. The study’s best performing carrier is T-Mobile Hungary, at just over 1,600 kbps, meaning that 3G in Budapest is more than twice as fast as in New York.
[Via ARCchart]
