If you live in an area of the US that"s served by Verizon"s LTE-based 4G wireless network, congratulations. According to a new survey published this week at PC Magazine"s web site, the 4G network is now the fastest you can access if you have a compatible smartphone or laptop device. PC Magazine went to 21 cities all across the US and tested the speeds of eight 3G and 4G wireless networks and with one small exception the LTE based wireless network from Verizon was the fastest tested by a large margin compared to the rest.
In all of the various parts of the US where the Verizon LTE network was available, the average download speeds were between 7 and 11 Mpbs. Sometimes the speeds were as high as 37 Mbps. The only section of the US where the Verizon 4G network was not available for testing was in the "rural" areas as well as smaller cities like Macon, Georgia. If you happen to live in those areas AT&T"s 3G coverage has the fastest speed.
Verizon has been extremely aggressive in adding more and more cities and metro areas that support its LTE wireless network. A new set of cities is scheduled to go live in mid-July. Meanwhile AT&T is supposed to launch its own LTE based 4G wireless network in a select few cities in the US later this summer. They claim that their download speeds will be faster than Verizon"s LTE network. However it will take a while before AT&T"s new network will reach the amount of coverage than Verizon"s network currently has.