Marco.org

AT&T claims that the New York City network has been significantly upgraded. In initial tests, this appears to be the case.

In March, I posted this speed-test graphic to show how bad the data service was in Manhattan.

Now, I’ve updated it. Keep in mind that this is relatively unscientific, as it’s only one data point, and I moved from an iPhone 3GS to an iPhone 4 since the original test:

It’s a huge improvement. (Unless I’m touching the antenna gap. Yeah… I was wrong about that. It’s a real problem.)

I’ve also spent the evening using the data connection around midtown and the Metro-North corridor casually, and the difference is like night and day. This isn’t to say that they just turned it on today, but there has definitely been a very recent change — probably within the last few weeks, at most — that made a huge difference. I haven’t noticed it before today because I’ve trained myself never to use the AT&T data network in Manhattan if I can help it.

I hope my limited impressions and tests reflect city-wide network quality. And I hope it stays this way.