Six Major 3G and 4G Networks Tested Nationwide

adeelarshad82 writes "PCMag recently tested six 3G and 4G networks to determine which ones were the fastest (and slowest) in 18 different US cities. They focused on data, not calls, and used their own testing script and methodology, which combined various kinds of uploads and downloads. Using laptops, more than a dozen people ran more than 10,000 tests; they found AT&T is both the fastest national 3G network, and the least consistent. Sprint's 3G system was the slowest of the 'big four' carriers, but the most consistent. When the test results were broken down by regions, AT&T led on speed in the Southeast, Central, and West, but T-Mobile took the crown in the Northeast region. Sprint's 4G network was fast where it was available, but it was surprisingly slower than 3G in some cities. The fastest AT&T download seen, at 5.05 megabits/sec, was right behind Apple's headquarters at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino, CA. The fastest connection in any of the tests was a blazing 9.11 megabits down on Sprint 4G in the Midtown neighborhood of Atlanta, GA. The slowest city, on average, was Raleigh, with average 3G downloads of 880kbits/sec."

Comments

Verizon

[dward90]

I'm surprised at not seeing Verizon mentioned in the summary, as I've heard pretty much everywhere that they have the best network. Perhaps Verizon focuses more on phone service than data?

Re:Verizon

[Anonymous Coward]

Interestingly, http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/07/3g-speed-test/ has very different results and Verizon comes in first.

Verizon has always favored call quality over data service though, that's why they stuck with CDMA and even took so long to convert to digital. For a long time they even required every handset maker to include an extendable antenna for their network to ensure you could get the best signal possible for calls.

Even now, Verizon 3G is technically EV-DO which caps at 3MB much lower than the 14MB of HSDPA.

sounds about right from what i see

[alen]

in NYC and i have an iphone 3GS and a sprint blackberry. speedtests on the iphone average around 600 - 3500kbps download. even in midtown manhattan. depends on the exact location and time of day. and response is pretty good. the Sprint BB is like watching trees grow. Google maps is slow. and there are tons of deadspots around NYC. only time it's better is in one of the old factory buildings on the west side. last year when AT&T had problems i would listen to pandora and slacker on my BB.

with iphone OS 4 coming out next week i would throw the blackberry in the trash if it didn't belong to my employer

My personal testing results

[rongage]

For what it's worth...

I was in Chicago for a couple of months at the beginning of the year. While there, I subscribed to Clear Internet (http://www.clear.com) - a 4G provider with (I think) Sprint backing it.

My results were absolutely horrible - on average, I was getting 51k download speeds. This was as measured on the modem itself (no router/firewall/PC - right from the status screen on the modem). There was nothing I could do to improve this and the people at Clear were completely baffled by this. According to the Clear folk, I was about 1/10 mile from the nearest tower. I was getting excellent signal and PSNR.

In my mind, either Clear was totally messed up or 4G has a lot more hype than delivery.

Only cities...

[recharged95]

So the indirect conclusion is if you want a best balance of speed, consistency, coverage and price... in a major city, go T-Mobile. Especially when they get HSPA+ running.

Of course, T-mobile has had it's share of privacy problems or losing data (Sidekick incident).