by T. Gene

Created on: February 24, 2011

 Verizon and AT&T are both major players in the mobile telephone/internet arena. With so many differences in these carriers, not to mention the fact that 4G is just around the corner, it can be a daunting task to decide which carrier to choose.

Coverage

The coverage of AT&T is usually spotty to say the best. If you live in a major, well-known city, you probably won’t have any issues with AT&T’s coverage. But, for those of us that don’t, AT&T’s coverage just isn’t an option.

Verizon seems to have surpassed AT&T by leaps and bounds in the coverage department, even with AT&T’s addition of Sprint’s network. Bottom line, if you don’t live in one of the 10 biggest cities in the U.S., Verizon’s coverage knocks the socks off of AT&T every time.

Even if you do live in a well-covered major metropolis, what if you need to travel often? It is likely for this reason that many people in major AT&T markets still choose to go with Verizon 3G.

Hardware

For a while now, AT&T has been winning over the masses with their exclusive deal with Apple to service the iPhone on their network. The applications available for iPhone are many. The features of the iPhone itself are terrific and it is just an all around great phone. Enter the Android.

Verizon was forced to take a back seat to the iPhone for a good while, but as they did this, it seems they were doing their homework. The release of the Android and its open source platform took the world by storm. Customers can now have a superior network "and' a comparable phone in the Android. Oh yeah, and Verizon has now closed a deal to also offer the new iPhone 4 on their network. Sorry AT&T.

Network Speed

In speed tests, AT&T’s 3G network has come out on top of Verizon with an average download speed of about twice as fast. Even so, is it really a tremendous achievement to have a super-fast network that works in “some” areas? Many customers think not.

Overall, AT&T and Verizon both have respectable 3G networks and the coverage of AT&T’s network is getting better by the minute. If faced with a choice between which 3G network to go with, look at coverage, available hardware, and network speed and choose the option that suits you and your lifestyle best.

Sources:

Wired, www.wired.com

MSNBC, www.msnbc.com

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