VZW Best Fastest Incredible 4G LTE, AT&T Top NY, SF & DC & T-Mo Burbs/Rural: Results Refuted

PCMag.com has posted the results of its annual Fastest Mobile Networks.  The winner to be found the fastest data network nationwide is Verizon Wireless 4G LTE. AT&T and T-Mobile came in top in some areas. After publishing the results AT&T refuted the results.

Comment from WiMo News: Although Verizon Wireless is the fastest, it may become the most expensive for individual users when shared data plans start on June 28 which may or may be in time for the Droid Incredible 4G LTE (read how to keep your unlimited data plan). The next most expensive per gigabyte data service is AT&T which came in first place, second, except it doesn't have as much area coverage.  The least expensive per gigabyte, Sprint with its unlimited data is not as fast.  Maybe 4G LTE is like sports cars the more expensive, the faster you go?

Other PCMAG Fast Data awards went to:

• AT&T bested in 10 cities including New York, San Francisco and Washington DC.
• Verizon came in first in 19 cities including Chicago, Los Angeles,  and Miami.
• T-Mobile won awards for being the fastest in four suburban/rural regions, as well as fastest outside the 30 test cities in general.
• On average, AT&T 4G LTE delivered the fastest downloads at 13.71Mbps where available, while Verizon 4G LTE showed the fastest uploads at 6.46Mbps and the best overall reliability.

Sascha Segan, at PCMag.com reported that "Where it's available, AT&T's network has terrific download speeds, but it's in fewer cities. T-Mobile's HSPA+ is also truly 4G, and offers great value for money."

PCMAG got a sneak peak at Sprint's 4G LTE network that has not launched, yet.  Segan said it looks to be competitive with AT&T and Verizon, he needs to know where it will be.

AT&T has already issued a statement to PCMAG stating "Unfortunately, the testing app they(PCMAG)  used has a glitch that understates our 4G LTE upload speeds."

Segan responded by saying that AT&T did well, was involved in the testing and sent engineers to fine-tune the PCMAG testing software. He noted that many of the AT&T devices were running Android 2.3 Gingerbread which may have effected upload speeds.  He also noted that it was important that PCMAG used the same software for all the networks they tested.

Performance of the 3G networks Apple's iPhone runs on were tested and AT&T won as the fastest iPhone network while Verizon's 3G network is more reliable in many key cities,  Segan reported.

Cities tested included Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte NC, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville FL, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Memphis, Miami FL, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland OR, Raleigh NC, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tucson, and Washington DC.

 Of the 44 awards available, Verizon Wireless 4G LTE won 28, AT&T 4G LTE won 10, T-Mobile won five and one, San Antonio, was a tie between Verizon and AT&T.

PCMag.com's drivers covered 30 cities and six rural/suburban regions of the U.S. to test the top five wireless carriers, AT&T, MetroPCS, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless. Using software designed by network testing firm Sensorly, PCMag collected 240,000 lines of data on smartphone downloads, uploads, Internet streaming, and network reliability.

See all awards.