Well the numbers are in folks, and we’re pretty surprised to reveal that AT&T’s 3G network might not be the travesty many thought it was. Don’t get us wrong — it is in fact abysmal in countless areas across the country. According to results recorded by our readers however, it’s also pretty solid in many areas. Some quick background: Yesterday, we posted about how terrible AT&T 3G is for us in the NYC area. We then asked readers to let us know where they are, what phone they’re using and results of an AT&T’s 3G speed test. Many complied — so why not take a look at the numbers?

After going through the comments and weeding out speed tests from other networks and chatter, we were left with about 200 results as of just after 11:30am this morning. Readers posted from all around the country using a variety of different phones. Generally, the bulk of the results came from iPhones and BlackBerrys, and locales were in and around major cities for the most part. Here’s what we found:

• Average download speed: 933kbps
• Median download speed: 840kbps
• Average upload speed: 180kbps
• Median upload speed: 215kbps

As you can see, things might not be so bad after all. An average download speed in the mid-900s is actually pretty respectable, comparatively. Upload speeds are a disaster on the the other hand, but we know they’re limited for the time being so not much can be done there.

Truth be told, we were blown away by some of the results. Several users posted download speeds above 2,000kbps with the fastest result skewing our data a bit at 3,663kbps (from Austin, TX) [UPDATE: the commenter who posted this result made a mistake, as pointed out below (he was on Wi-Fi). The numbers have been updated with his 3G speed test results]. Speaking of skewing, we did notice that the median download speed was noticeably lower than the average speed, so we decided to trim the results a bit and see what would happen:

• Average download speed, top and bottom five results discarded: 920kbps
• Average download speed, top and bottom 10 results discarded: 914kbps

Dropping the top and bottom 10 results delivers an average speed that is slower by almost 20kbps. Long story short, there were definitely more people on the low end of the spectrum than on the high end.

So in the end, what have we learned? There are areas where AT&T’s 3G service is definitely solid. There are even areas where it’s blazing fast. Unfortunately, it looks like there are many more areas where the carrier’s 3G service is less than adequate — we had several results in the double-digits which is flat out atrocious. People complain far louder than they praise of course, so until AT&T can step up its game in major cities where service is lacking we’ll continue to hear about how bad things are far more often than we hear about how good they are.

As for the iPhone 3GS actually seeing anything close to 7.2Mbps any time soon… Yeah, we’re not holding our breath.

Here is the data, if anyone else wants to play with the numbers. [Updated data now available]

Disclaimer: The results of these tests are not collected in a controlled environment and therefore should not be considered to represent a concrete indication of the above carrier’s 3G network speeds and/or performance in general. These results merely provide the average 3G network speeds of the above carrier as experienced by those readers who perform speed tests and share their results. Stop whining.

Since the iPhone 3G was released over a year ago, AT&T customers in many regions have experienced the slow and painful decay of what had once been an incredibly solid 3G network. The bottom line is that AT&T’s network is now so congested in many populated regions that it’s become a sick, laughable joke. Now, don’t get us wrong. In many areas AT&T’s 3G service is still rocking and rolling according to countless subscribers — we just wish we could find those areas. Here in and around NYC, continued woes have prompted us to perform several speed tests over the past few weeks to get a handle on exactly why calls are constantly dropped (if they’re even connected to begin with) and why data seems to be moving at a snail’s pace. The screenshot above shows the results of one such test. Arrows and cheeky thumb’s up aside, the image is not doctored. 38… kilobits… per… second… average… download… speed. Imagine a carrier with the cojones to advertise “the nation’s fastest 3G network” when even one speed test result could be that abysmal.

To be fair, the screen capture above represents the worst result we saw during our tests. What was the best, you might be wondering? 384kbps. Yes that’s kilobits, not kilobytes. Our typical results were in the low 300s — still quite pathetic — and all of our tests were performed with either an iPhone 3GS or a BlackBerry Bold. These results, mind you, follow AT&T’s claim to have recently added 75 new cells in the NY Metro area. Now, when you’re a carrier whose flagship handset includes an “S” for “speed” in its name and it’s capable of download speeds up to 7.2Mbps, you better be on top of your game — especially in a densely populated region like NYC and the surrounding area. 384kbps isn’t going to cut it and 38kbps most definitely isn’t going to cut it. Yet the company continues to carry on about current network speeds and its plans to roll out 7.2Mbps HSPA.

So now, people, it’s time for roll call. If you’re on AT&T we want to know where you are, what phone you’re using and what kind of speeds you’re getting when you test. Extra points if you link a screenshot. Oh and just for fun, this is from an iPhone 3GS on Rogers earlier this afternoon:

AT&T continues to boast of “the nation’s fastest 3G network” while many customers in various regions across the country seem to think differently. Dropped calls, outages, network congestion and general reliability issues continue to plague the carrier’s 3G network but today we have some good news for those of you currently with AT&T. According to one of our ninjas, AT&T is set to begin a rolling launch of its Network Settings (N-SET) Solution across all networks in the US. The roll out will begin this month. N-SET will balance traffic between the carrier’s 2G and 3G networks, thus reducing the load borne by its 3G network. Essentially, a customer who primarily uses voice services will connect via 2G even if 3G is supported by his or her handset. If and when said customer begins to actively use data services, the network will bounce him or her over to 3G. BlackBerry Bold and iPhone 3G users will not be affected by the change. Assuming all goes according to plan, N-SET stands to have a pretty immediate impact on network performance by freeing up 3G bandwidth for heavier data users. Whether or not it will be enough to impact urban and populated areas — especially once the new iPhone is released this Summer — remains to be seen.

To accommodate unprecedented demand for mobile data and voice applications at SXSW, we are actively working this afternoon to add capacity to our cell sites serving downtown Austin.  These efforts are ongoing, but we anticipate that customers should see improved network performance this evening and for the remainder of the event.  We will continue to monitor network performance throughout the event, and will do everything possible to maximize network performance throughout.  We apologize to customers who were inconvenienced  during this surge in local network demand.

Wow. If it’s that easy, AT&T, how about doing something about the disaster your 3G/3.5G network in the New York Metro area has become?

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