AT&T Disputes Upload Results

PCMag's Fastest Mobile Networks story tested eight networks in 30 cities. Unfortunately, after the tests were completed, AT&T decided to dispute one element of our results. In the interest of fairness, here is AT&T's statement and our response.

AT&T's Statement:

The PC Magazine speed tests show the incredible 4G LTE download speeds we provide our customers and validate that AT&T offers the best iPhone data experience. We have given PC Magazine independent data establishing that their testing app has a technical flaw that understates our 4G LTE upload speeds when a particular version of the Android software is used.  This flaw disparately affected AT&T’s upload and overall results.  It’s disappointing and a disservice to the public that the editors chose to publish results we have demonstrated are inaccurate. 

We Respond:

We were surprised to get this response, as AT&T's network did extremely well in our tests. AT&T's LTE network won 10 of the 16 cities where it was both available and not spectrum-limited. (For more on that, see .) 

AT&T was highly involved with our testing from the start. We used devices supplied by AT&T, and AT&T engineers spent several days helping to fine-tune our testing software before we got on the road. We used well-established testing software, which was also the basis of our 2011 network tests. 

It also is worth noting that the Android devices supplied to us by AT&T were loaded with the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) operating system, and it appears that consumers may see faster upload speeds with different versions of the Android operating system.

The upload speeds we got were exactly in the range promised by AT&T network architecture chief Kris Rinne when the network launched in 2011, as she told the AP.

All speed tests give different results, as you can see in our tests of . The most important thing to do in a story like this is to use the same test across all carriers and to let everyone have their say, and we feel we've done this.