Verizon mostly sweeps phone speed tests thanks to LTE
updated 06:10 pm EDT, Mon June 27, 2011
Verizon tops US-wide speed comparison
Verizon's early 4G network push has given it at least the technical speed advantage on phones in the US, a US-wide field test shows. The LTE-based network is both the fastest overall across 21 cities as well as through individual regional tests. The carrier only loses in PCMag's study in tests for rural and mid-size areas, where the newness of Verizon's network gave AT&T's 3G the lead by default.
LTE's inherent speed advantage gives it the lead and an average of about 9.5Mbps downstream and 1.4Mbps upstream. T-Mobile was next fastest overall through its HSPA+ 3G network, but at 3.7Mbs down and 1.1Mbps up, it was noticeably slower. Sprint's 3G network is the slowest at just 500Kbps down and 350Kbps up, although its WiMAX 4G puts it much closer to T-Mobile.
Verizon's network isn't necessarily the most reliable in these areas, whether running on a 3G-only device or stepping down from 4G. Coverage is partly a factor, although a check of live audio and video streaming makes it the most likely to smoothly handle intense content where even more reliable networks drop out sooner.
The network speeds are expected to change quickly in the course of the next half-year. AT&T is scheduled to deploy its first LTE networks near the end of the summer and will have 21Mbps HSPA+ in many of the areas where it has to lean on 3G. T-Mobile doesn't have any near-term LTE plans outside of the possible merger with AT&T but will have 42Mbps service across more of its cities in the near future.
Sprint doesn't have any official plans to use a completely new technology but is considering a jump to LTE. The existing WiMAX network should see a practical lift in the future with a 50 percent boost to uploads, to reach 1.5Mbps.
The test doesn't include dropped calls and so doesn't touch on a historical AT&T weak point in some major cities. It does, however, challenge AT&T assertions that Cricket and MetroPCS are competitors, since neither can compete substantially in speeds, even with MetroPCS' fledgling LTE network.
