This is a comparison of the Top 5. (MetroPCS is #5, Boost Mobile is not included in this.)
Fastest Mobile Networks 2012
PCMag hit the road to test 3G and 4G networks in 30 U.S. cities. Before you buy your next phone or tablet, find out which wireless carrier has the fastest data network where you live.
By Sascha Segan | June 18, 2012
With more than half of all U.S. mobile phone buyers picking smartphones, we're all relying heavily on wireless Internet. Seven major U.S. wireless carriers are all promising some form of "4G" now or in the near future, but all 4G isn't the same. So for the third year in a row, we sent drivers out to see the state of the 4G nation and bring home 240,000 lines of data to figure out which network is the fastest near you.
This year we dramatically expanded our testing project, taking three 2013 Ford Taurus cars out to survey 30 U.S. cities. We tested the five largest U.S. carriers: AT&T, MetroPCS, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless. (For more about the wireless providers, see
Different Carriers, Different Strengths.)
We found the situation is even muddier than it was last year, as all the carriers seems to be calling nearly everything 4G. We'd love to say that LTE is the gold standard, but that isn't always the case, as the slower results from MetroPCS's LTE network and the speedy downloads on T-Mobile's HSPA+ 42 network show. (For more about 4G classification and speeds, see
How Fast Is 4G?)
Rather, you need to have a solid LTE network with lots of spectrum to win, and it helps if not a lot of people are using it yet. Across our 30 cities, Verizon's 4G LTE network dueled with AT&T's new 4G LTE network for supremacy; Verizon won 19 cities while AT&T won 10, and the two carriers tied in one. T-Mobile came surprisingly close for a non-LTE carrier. And the slower results in cities where AT&T and T-Mobile have less spectrum show that the spectrum crunch is real. (For more, see
Why Spectrum Matters.)
Not all phones, including Apple's popular iPhone, support 4G, and the fastest technologies aren't available in rural areas, either. So we made sure to measure the carriers' 3G networks as well. (For more, see
Which Carrier Has the Fastest iPhone?)
Finally, this is a snapshot of networks in May 2012. Our results are sure to change in 2013 as new LTE networks come on line from Cricket, Sprint and T-Mobile. We got a brief glimpse of what Sprint will have to offer in Atlanta; for more on that, see
Testing Sprint's New 4G LTE Network.
Our Methodology
We chose our 30 test cities so they were evenly spread across our six regions, and so we could drive to all of them in three weeks. We also chose so as many of them as possible had the maximum number of 4G networks. We tested 12 of MetroPCS's 14 LTE cities, 20 of AT&T's 39 LTE markets, 23 of Sprint's 70 WiMAX markets, and 30 of Verizon's 258 4G LTE markets.
Two of the carriers we regularly review declined to participate this year. Cricket currently runs a slow-but-steady 3G network and is installing 4G LTE soon; it'll return in our 2013 feature. U.S. Cellular has LTE, but its coverage map didn't mesh well with our travel plans.
The competition is much closer than it looks. Calculating our speed score, we applied a major penalty if a network wasn't available in one of our test cities. If we only counted the cities where AT&T LTE had coverage, it would have tied Verizon nationally and won the northeast, southeast, and south central regions. But you can't win if you don't play, and AT&T's 39 markets pale when compared with Verizon's 258-market rollout. (After our testing was complete,
AT&T disputed the upload speed results we found on its network.)
Note that we didn't test call quality, dropped calls, or coverage. These tests are all about data speed. For the best assessment of voice call quality according to our readers, check out our annual
Reader's Choice awards results. To get a picture of wireless coverage near you, download the
Sensorly app from the Android Market and you'll see crowd-sourced coverage maps for all the major U.S. mobile carriers, enhanced with the data from our test drives. (For more, see
How We Tested.)
Again, mobile networks are constantly changing, and almost always for the better. And because speeds vary based on tower location, network load, device used, and even the weather, we can't predict performance in a specific location; rather, we're giving a snapshot of a few days' worth of usage in several locations across a metro area. Hit the next page for the regional and national winners:
Regional and National Winners
Northeast: Verizon 4G LTE
With a rapidly expanding LTE network covering not only our five test cities (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC), but smaller ones like New Haven, Harrisburg, and Syracuse, Verizon's 4G LTE network is the best overall choice across the northeast region. While AT&T's LTE network delivered higher download speeds where available, Verizon's system was more widely available and delivered solid reliability across all of our northeast markets.
Southeast: Verizon 4G LTE
With rapidly expanding coverage, especially in the Carolinas, Alabama, and Florida, Verizon's 4G LTE network is the fastest choice in the southeast. A balance of solid download speeds over 8Mbps and high overall network quality in our test cities (Raleigh, Charlotte, Atlanta, Jacksonville, and Miami) helped it win the award, along with coverage of key cities like Miami where AT&T hasn't laid in 4G yet.
North Central: Verizon 4G LTE
Verizon has been building out 4G LTE aggressively in the north-central region, covering all five of our test cities (Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Kansas City) as well as large swathes of Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana. Its broadband speeds make Verizon 4G LTE the best overall choice in this region.
South Central: Verizon 4G LTE
Verizon's 4G LTE network was the fastest across the five cities of our south central region (Memphis, New Orleans, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio), as AT&T took a penalty for not being available in Memphis. Verizon's 4G LTE network, which is expanding fast in Louisiana, Oklahoma and eastern Texas, delivered excellent speeds across our five cities.
Northwest: Verizon 4G LTE
Verizon's 4G LTE network won our Northwest region by a hair over T-Mobile, whose HSPA+ 42 network nearly matched LTE on downloads in all five of our test cities (Denver, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle). AT&T's LTE took major penalties for being available in very few cities across the northwest U.S.
Southwest: Verizon 4G LTE
Verizon's 4G LTE network delivered the best 4G experience across the five cities in our southwest region (Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, San Diego, and Los Angeles). As we've seen elsewhere, Verizon's overall experience, balancing various network qualities, set the network apart. AT&T's LTE was spectrum-limited in LA and not available in Tucson.
Rural/Suburban: T-Mobile
Once you get outside America's major metro areas, 4G can be hard to find—unless you have T-Mobile coverage. T-Mobile has brought HSPA+ 42 to most of its national footprint by now, giving it broader 4G reach than the other major carriers. That coverage made T-Mobile HSPA+ by far the fastest of the four national networks we tested outside our 30 major cities. T-Mobile also had the least comprehensive coverage, though, so as always, make sure your carrier of choice covers where you live and work.
National: Verizon 4G LTE
LTE is the gold standard of 4G technologies in the U.S.A., and Verizon's 4G LTE network is now available in 258 markets across the U.S., dwarfing AT&T's still-nascent LTE system with 39 cities. AT&T, Sprint, and MetroPCS all suffered major penalties to their speed score for not being available in all 30 of our test cities, but Verizon's LTE swept the board. With industry-leading coverage and relatively symmetrical speeds, Verizon LTE is the best nationwide 4G choice.
Atlanta, GA
It shouldn't surprise you that AT&T's brand-new 4G LTE network wins in the carrier's hometown; the network posted terrific download speeds as well as high upload speeds and excellent network consistency. Verizon and T-Mobile are also offering 4G in Atlanta, but those networks didn't measure up to AT&T in our tests.
Worth noting: Atlanta had the single fastest download we saw anywhere in the country, a scorching 56Mbps off Glenwood Avenue in the East Lake neighborhood.
Other than the arrival of AT&T LTE, the most noticeable changes from our 2011 results are that Verizon's and Sprint's 4G networks have slowed down a bit, and Sprint's 3G network has sped up. It's still the slowest of the networks we tested, but Atlanta is a rare bright spot for Sprint 3G.
We also
tested Sprint's nascent 4G LTE network in Atlanta, getting impressive results usually over 10Mbps down. That network hasn't launched yet, though.
Source:
pcmag.com
