Verizon iPhone Gets Better Coverage, Slower Data, Wired.com Test Finds

The most popular phone in the United States is finally landing on Verizon, and the moment of truth has come: Will it handle the iPhone better than AT&T?�Wired.com’s initial batch of testing suggests the iPhone is a better phone on Verizon, but not a superior media-consumption device in terms of bandwidth speed.

(Read Wired.com’s review of the Verizon iPhone 4 for our complete verdict on the device.)

We ran a series of bandwidth and phone tests on both the Verizon iPhone 4 and AT&T iPhone 4 in 16 locations throughout San Francisco, where 3G bandwidth is known to be as diverse as the residential population.

The results found that Verizon overall has better coverage, but AT&T download rates are 62 percent faster than Verizon, and AT&T upload rates are 38 percent faster than Verizon.

For phone calls, Verizon passed every test, whereas AT&T failed two. The AT&T iPhone also occasionally switched to the slower EDGE in some locations while trying to place a call, but the Verizon iPhone was able to pull a 3G signal to place a call at every location ? even in “dead spots” where it seems impossible to get an AT&T signal.

The difference in bandwidth is substantial, and it corroborates earlier independent tests that found AT&T does indeed have a faster network, but Verizon has more coverage.

To perform the speed test, we ran a bandwidth test three times on both devices at each location with the third-party iPhone app Speed Test. (If an iPhone scored “0″ for any of the speed tests, it failed that test.) Then we took the average of the three download speed results and the three upload speed results. Finally, we averaged all these results to determine the general performance of the Verizon iPhone and the AT&T iPhone in San Francisco.

For phone tests, at each location we placed three phone calls. If the iPhone was able to successfully place at least two phone calls, it passed the test. If it could not place at least two phone calls, it failed.

To make this all easier to digest, we plotted the results in the interactive ZeeMap above.