The conventional wisdom is that Verizon's network (voice and data) is much, much better than AT&T's network. But is that correct? Consumer Reports went out to get actual data, and the results are surprising:

The results place AT&T's data network not just on top, but well ahead of everyone else. "AT&T's data throughput is 40 to 50 percent higher than the competition, including Verizon," Mr. Carter said. AT&T is a client and Verizon is not, he added.

They did these tests with phones other than the iPhone, as Apple won't allow code like their test harness on the device. Which means that the problem might well be... the iPhone itself:

Roger Entner, senior vice president for telecommunications research at Nielsen, said the iPhone's "air interface," the electronics in the phone that connect it to the cell towers, had shortcomings that "affect both voice and data." He said that in the eyes of the consumer, "the iPhone has the nimbus of infallibility, ergo, it's AT&T's fault."

I'd want to dig into that data directly, but wow - that's interesting. If it's true, some of the private conversations between Apple and AT&T must be really, really interesting - and it puts last week's "Fake Steve" post in a different light, too...

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