Verizon is the best wireless carrier in Baton Rouge, with AT&T a close second, according to a study done by RootMetrics, a Seattle-based data statistic company.
T-Mobile and Sprint follow in third and fourth, respectively. Verizon beat AT&T in the texting category, taking an average of only 3.4 seconds to receive a text compared to AT&T’s 4.2 seconds.
T-Mobile took 4.8 seconds to receive a message and Sprint took 13.1 seconds.
AT&T’s 4G LTE network beat Verizon in terms of average download speed at 12.9 mb/s to Verizon’s 10.9 mb/s, but Verizon had a faster upload speed – 7.6 mb/s to AT&T’s 5.5 mb/s.
T-Mobile had download speeds of 3.5 mb/s and upload speeds of 1.4 mb/s.
Sprint, with no LTE network in Baton Rouge, had download and upload speeds of 0.4 mb/s.
The study also showed AT&T and Verizon were the most reliable networks for data delivery in Baton Rouge.
Dropped calls were an issue for T-Mobile – 5.9 percent of calls failed during testing, with only 1.6 percent for AT&T, 0.5 percent for Sprint and 0.3 percent for Verizon.
Verizon’s combined score was 90.7, compared to AT&T’s 88.5, T-Mobile’s 48.2 and Sprint’s 44.9.z
Gretchen Whitaker, public relations representative for Verizon, said she was excited about the results of the study, but not surprised.
“We continually upgrade and invest in our network – millions in our Louisiana network in 2012 alone – have 4G LTE service in several areas of the state including New Orleans and Baton Rouge and will be announcing more markets, like Lafayette, soon,” Whitaker said.
Polly Finley, psychology junior, has a Verizon iPhone and said she’s never had a problem with their service.
Sue Sperry, AT&T public relations manager for Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, responded to the study by saying, “From 2009-2011, we invested more than $250 million in the Greater Baton Rouge area wireless and wireline networks, and we’ll continue investing in order to give our customers the best possible experience.”
The study was performed on Android phones for each carrier with RootMetric’s RootScout app.
 
____ Contact Taylor Balkom at [email protected]