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Fastest Mobile Netw orks 2013
Fastest Mobile Networks 2013
PCMag drove more than 20,000 miles to test AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless. Here's
what we found.
By Sascha Segan
June 17, 2013
34 Comments
AT&T and Verizon are battling it Contents
out to build nationwide, highFastest Mobile
speed wireless networks to feed Networks 2013
Americans' millions of hungry
Regional and
National Winners
smartphones and tablets, and
Sprint and T-Mobile aren't far
Different Carriers,
Different Strength
behind. So, for the fourth year
running, we sent drivers out on
How We Tested
the road to test our 4G nation
4G: Beyond Speed
and figure out which network is
It's Electric! Driving
the fastest near you.
Ford's High-Tech
This year, we upgraded our
testing to be more consistent and more realistic. We put three Ford
hybrid-electric cars on the road (for more, see "It's Electric! Driving
Ford's High-Tech Cars"), each packed with eight identical Samsung
phones to test the four major carriers' networks: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile,
and Verizon Wireless. A new testing tool from Sensorly let us grab new
measurements, like the all-important "time to first byte" which tells you
how long it takes for a Web page to start to appear. (For more, see How
We Tested.)
With our improved tools, we found out why you should be looking for the
letters "LTE" on your 4G phone, and how LTE's strengths lend
themselves to real-world advantages like faster Web page downloads. But
remember: The speeds we saw on AT&T's and Verizon's nationwide LTE
networks look spectacular, but they aren't the whole story, as neither
network is able to deliver a completely consistent or affordable home
broadband quality experience. (For more, see "4G: Beyond Speed.")
Cars
Atlanta, GA
Austin, TX
Baltimore, MD
Boston, MA
Charlotte, NC
Chicago, IL
Dallas, TX
Denver, CO
Detroit, MI
Houston, TX
Indianapolis, IN
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2. Raleigh, NC
Salt Lake City, UT
San Diego, CA
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San Francisco Bay
Area
Seattle, WA
St. Louis, MO
Overall, we found AT&T's LTE network to be the fastest of the group, but
Verizon Wireless typically triumphed on our reliability gauges. T-Mobile's
new LTE network looked great in the few cities where we could find it,
and it has the best backup in T-Mobile's HSPA+ network. Sprint, just like
in 2012, didn't win any cities, but it's on an upward trend by switching
from obsolete WiMAX to a fresh LTE system.
Tampa, FL
Tucson, AZ
Washington, DC
Rural/Suburban
This is all great news, because it means competition is working. While none of the wireless
carriers offers a perfect 4G experience, they're all working hard and delivering better
networks than they did last year. There's one thing clear, though: If you have an older 3G
phone and you're in an LTE coverage area, upgrade to an LTE phone right now. The
difference in data performance is dramatic.
Where We Tested
This year, we worked with our technology partner Sensorly to collect even more data in our
30 studied cities. Once again, 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 defined the boundary around each city as either the city limits, or the city's major ring
road. Outside those 30 cities, our cars drove on a mix of interstate and U.S. highways and
stopped in smaller cities along the way. The data we collected contributed to a
"suburban/rural" score for each of our six regions.
Every one of our 30 cities had AT&T's and Verizon's LTE networks. We also tested 24 of
Sprint's 88 LTE markets and six of T-Mobile's seven LTE cities: Baltimore, Houston, Kansas
City, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Washington DC. While we saw some limited T-Mobile LTE in
Tucson, Seattle, and the San Francisco Bay Area, we didn't deem coverage broad enough to
include the results in the study.
Over the years, we've gotten a lot of complaints from people who live in states we haven't
been able to focus on, such as Minnesota, Wisconsin, Alabama, and Ohio. We're looking at
using crowdsourcing and additional data sets to expand our coverage even further beyond
our own drive testing in 2014.
What We Tested
This is "fastest" mobile networks, so we're focusing on speed and reliability. We didn't test
call quality, dropped calls, or coverage. 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, go to Sensorly's Web site and you'll see crowdsourced coverage maps for all the major U.S. mobile carriers, enhanced with the data from
our test drives. (For more, see How We Tested.)
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.
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