Verizon’s Network is Soooo Slow

by Colin Berkshire

Maybe you noticed that I don’t hold Verizon in high regard. We’re all entitled to our opinions.

But I would like to demonstrate with FACTS that Verizon’s network sucks. It’s not just my opinion. I have proof.

The image below shows 8 times over the past few months when I have done OOKLA speed tests using Verizon’s LTE network. You can see for yourself that the network is terrible. It rots.

And, by “rots” I mean I get well under 1 megabit of speeds, and usually I get much less than that. I can’t watch videos. I really can’t do anything much.

Now, I have samples throughout the west coast and a number also on the east coast. (I spend most time on the west coast, but I have been in Washington DC and New York City in the last month and they were spotty as well.) I have an iPhone 6 plus, which pretty much as the state-of-the-art modem and antenna.

What is new is that there seems to be no correlation between vars of strength (or “dots” now). You can have 5 bars of coverage and terrible coverage. You can have LTE or 3G and its horrible. I don’t know what HRPD is, but that isn’t much better. It seems Verizon’s network breaks at many levels.

Here is the proof:

Screen Shot 2015-08-12 at 13.21.51

I have dozens and dozens more of samples. These have not been cherry picked.

I don’t need 50 megabits to be happy. I just need a reliable 2 megabits. Verizon doesn’t deliver.

They used to have the reputation of having the best network. If that is true, their network is still really bad.

Why can’t we get decent cellular service in America?