Verizon Wireless 4G Fastest Among Carriers

Sorry, this seems to be a little late. This information is roughly a month or two old, but still very relevant and accurate.



According to an extensive study done by RootMetrics, Verizon Wireless' 4G data speeds far exceed that of any of its competitors. The major competitors with 4G are Sprint PCS, T-Mobile, and AT&T.

This study found that Verizon Wireless had the fastest, most consistent speed out of any other 4G network.

This study was performed using the HTC Thunderbolt on Verizon's LTE network, the HTC Inspire on AT&T's HSPA+ network, the HTC Evo on Sprint's WiMax network, and the Samsung Galaxy S on T-Mobile's HSPA+21 network. Since all of these relate to a "fourth-generation network" we will refer to all of them as just "4G".

Like previously mentioned, RootMetrics found that Verizon Wireless delivered the fastest speeds by average between 4 and 14.5 times faster than competitors on download and between 4 and 49.7 times faster on upload speeds. Verizon was also capable of maintaining the high speeds for the duration of the study, unlike the competition. They discovered that the Verizon Wireless LTE network could maintain 10+ megabits per second 90% of the time for download and between 5 and 10 megabits per second 100% of the time for upload.

Sprint & T-Mobile nearly tied for second place. T-Mobile offered download speeds of around 4.42MBPS over Sprint's 4.4MBPS. AT&T's speed lost at about 1.18MBPS download and upload speeds at just 123kbps.

This is what each carrier "promises" to offer:

• Verizon: 5-12MBPS download; 2-5MBPS upload.
• AT&T: Up to 6MBPS upload/download
• Sprint: 3-6MBPS upload/download
• T-Mobile has no official promise, but current testing shows about 6MBPS.

All of the devices in this test were using Android 2.2 powered smartphones and tested at specific locations in order to ensure accurate results.

You can view the full report here (PDF).

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Is that accurate? Where did you get the info? Anyway thanks for sharing. Good to have some more knowledge regarding this area.

I was planning to buy a 4G phone - until network optimization hit me on 3G at the beginning of November. Here's the story:

I signed up for an unlimited usage plan at 3G speed. Now I am on this optimization BS and can barely do a thing. I am left with a glorified cell phone.

In addition, they did not inform me personally that they were doing this to me - or when. One day, I went to use my phone and the speed was slower than a snail.

Also their customer service stinks! I've spent almost ten days on the phone with customer service and the techs trying to get this N.O. off my phone.

First of all, I was told that if I go to a metered plan my speed will be better, so I switched to a metered plan. Within one hour no speed change so I called back an the tech told me there would be no change in speed. He switched me back to the unlimited plan.

Then TWO supervisors told me the network optimization BS would come off my phone in 30 days. It started at the beginning of November. Guess what? It's still on my phone! They both told me they would check with the N.O. team and call me back the next day. They didn't call!

Today I talked with yet another tech supervisor who told me it is never coming off.

Well, Verizon, you just lost a customer!

I have six months left to go on my current plan but I don't care. This is disgraceful service - both network service and customer service!

I was told so many different scenarios, it's clear one half of Verizon doesn't know what the other half is doing - and nor do they care about satisfying the customer. This is one of the reasons why I am leaving them - the main reason being I am paying for a PDA plan that is now useless to me. No more!

I'm not even sure I will get a PDA with the next carrier either. Why bother!

Note: They did try to convince me to buy a 4G phone, saying there is no network optimization with those. I replied why would I pay $500 for a new phone after Verizon screwed me - and why would I do it only to find myself in network optimization one year down the road when the 5G phones come out.

Thank you