PC World: T-Mobile’s 4G network wins smartphone speed test

By on Mar 14, 2011 at 8:31 PM
General March 14, 2011

PC World has published a report that compares the 4G data speeds of both smartphones and laptop modems. As we’ve said in the past, we realize that you’re an AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, or Verizon Wireless customer because that particular carrier provides the services you want, need, and/or like in your area at a price you can afford. Nonetheless, hit the jump to see who was declared the winner!

PC World conducted tests in 13 U.S. cities including Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New Orleans, New York, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle during the first six weeks of 2011. The site performed 177,000 timed tests in 260 different testing locations — including both suburban and urban environments. If PC World and its testing partner, Novarum, were unable to find a 3G signal, the firms used the 3G network of a roaming partner.

The test results found the following speed averages for its laptop modem tests:

  • AT&T: average download speed 2.48Mbps, average upload speed 1.05Mbps
  • Sprint: average download speed 2.15Mbps, average upload speed 0.61Mbps
  • T-Mobile: average download speed 2.83Mbps, average upload speed 0.85Mbps
  • Verizon Wireless: average download speed 6.44Mbps, average upload speed 5.00Mbps.

In that case, Verizon Wireless — and LTE — was the clear winner. But the smartphone 4G tests painted a different picture:

  • AT&T: average download speed 1.45Mbps, average upload speed 0.97Mbps
  • Sprint: average download speed 1.50Mbps, average upload speed 0.56Mbps
  • T-Mobile: average download speed 2.28 Mbps, average upload speed 0.95 Mbps
  • Verizon Wireless: average download speed 1.01 Mbps, average upload speed 0.67 Mbps.

In the smartphone tests, T-Mobile came out on top with the fastest downlink data-speeds available. If you’re interested to know how the laptop modems and smartphones performed in a market near you, head over to PC World for an in-depth look at its test results.

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34 Comments

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  • http://twitter.com/SParKlngCyaNide SparklingCyanide

    That’s funny in my Area I average 3 to 9 mbps for T-Mobile 4G with bursts of 12.

    • http://twitter.com/flyawaymike flyawaymike

      I average 6-10, with bursts of 16.

      …on Sprint.

      • Anonymous

        Just pulled down 7.5mbps on sprint in LA.. Sprint and VZW hands down kill anything else in so cal

      • Anonymous

        You probably average 6-10 minutes of battery life, too. -Sent from my EVO

      • Anonymous

        What…… really you a evo owner are talking about bad battery life? If he gets 6-10 what does that mean you get? 2-3 mins. Seriously

      • Anonymous

        @Macboy – If he’s on Sprint running 4G he’s got one of three devices: EVO 4G, EVO Shift 4G, or Epic 4G. If you turn on the 4G radio, battery life is reduced significantly. So much so that I never use it, even tho I live in the heart of a big city where 4G is abundant. It isn’t worth it! Being an EVO owner, I understand it’s faults, one of which is battery life (but that goes without saying since there are currently no reputable smartphones out there that have much bragging room in that arena). And, 4G radios certainly don’t help. Read: It was phone satire.

        But, you probably own an iphone, so the notion of recognizing its faults or understanding any device other than your own is probably foreign to you.

      • Anonymous

        Yes I do have a iphone and thank god. I owned a evo for a week and returned it. So you can’t tell me nothing I don’t already know. Even with the 4g off the battery had to be on the charger by noon. And that’s just one of many short comings of the evo.

  • http://twitter.com/UrbanEnigma Yves

    It’s always nice to see some good news about T-Mobile in the midst of all the negative remarks about them from people who have probably never even had them as their provider.

  • http://www.facebook.com/brettmlewis Brett Lewis

    How can they have results on Verizon 4G LTE smartphone performance? They don’t have any 4G smart phones yet…

    • Mustangglx

      Exactly, i get slightly faster results on my droid x than that too…

    • Bstingler

      Ive been getting 1.3 mbps on my ORIGINAL droid!

    • Tim G

      No kidding!!! I guess you could say it’s a slap on the wrist to Verizon for being so slow launching any 4G phones, but still. There should be a giant Red asterisk on this article saying that Verizon’s smartphone results were only 3G, not LTE!!!

    • jp1682

      I was just thinking the same thing but than again how are verizons
      Speed tests with their lapsticks true speed when their lte network. Isn’t being pushed yet

      • Nyczpricne546

        ^your right. However, here in NY we are getting 17 mbs dl speeed at 4 mbs upload speed.

  • Shaunchong

    I had them and there horrible here in central california. Can’t hold a strong 3G signal and voice signal does not exist outside the town of Fresno. I wanted to stay with them when the HD2 came out but couldn’t take it anymore. They might be blazing fast but there is no coverage.

  • Anonymous

    There is only one problem with this. 4g does not exist on any of these carriers.

    • http://twitter.com/SaykredCow Suraj Ithikatt

      This again? Give it up.

    • KCRic

      The only problem I see is your face… just sayin’

  • http://clearrants.tumblr.com Clarence

    Uh, the smartphone test wasn’t a 4G speed test as they compared two 4G phones (the evo and the G2) with two 3G phones. That’s why ATT and VZW are lagging in the smartphone chart. It’s misleading to say that the smartphone test was a 4G carrier network speed test. It was more like a speed test of the smartphones that each carrier presently offers.

    “For the tests, we used AT&T’s Apple iPhone 4, Sprint’s HTC EVO 4G, T-Mobile’s HTC G2, and Verizon’s Motorola Droid 2″

  • KPa

    So will they redo this “4G smartphone test” when all the carriers actually have 4G smartphones? The Thunderbolt is rumored to come out in a few days. What then? Ridiculous…

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_HHYXLC7BR4UXD3AE4EU5JLJC24 Tanya

    Hmmm. when you look at Verizon’s fast laptop modem speeds, I’d like to see how Verizon’s network would do with a different phone. The Droid2 just might be slow, another phone might have performed better……

  • Anonymous

    This “study” is REALLY problematic.

  • Nofan

    “smartphone 4G tests painted a different pic”….. and what VZW 4g Smartphone did you use….the ones that have not been released??? How do you do a 4g test with no 4g device? #Fail

  • Anonymous

    This just in, my Ford Car is faster than my Schwinn Bicycle.

  • http://twitter.com/zinchy christian kassoff

    why are the 3g speeds faster than 4g speeds?

  • Fast

    This test will be irrelevant in a week, why bother?

  • Pat

    Misleading title…misleading article

  • Peterfgil

    Verizon gaunt launched a 4g phone it would win the test

  • Enaybee

    I average around 2.5 mbps down and 1.5 mbps up on AT&T 3g area using HSPA enabled kernel/modem combo on a custom rom using my captivate. Its funny when i was checking out Atrix 4G at the store and it was barely doing 1.5/0.5 (down/up). Even the rep was blown away by the speeds on my captivate. Shout out to brains at XDA developers.

  • EngineerGA

    Those are 3G speeds for Verizon. Where did they get a 4G phone to test Verizon’s network, given that the first 4G phone doesn’t launch until Thursday? LOL @ losers who can’t perform a fair test.

  • http://twitter.com/thegreatino Nick Tino

    If you read the source article it says it tests VZW’s smartphone data on a Droid2 on 3G… so this is definitely not an even comparison. It’s really a very poor study to not compare comparable things.

  • Sabindaspam

    it should be noted that they only used a droid 2(3G) for the Verizon phone tests. This is in no way an indication for the 4g phone performance

  • Joebutler85

    It was pretty redundant to release a “4G” phone network speed comparison now than to simply wait a few more days when they could have actually tested a 4G Thunderbolt phone instead of a 3G Droid X 2. AT&T’s phone was also a 3G phone being that it was an iPhone4. Verizon crushed everyone in broadband card LTE Speeds and if they were actually tested with their 4G Thunderbolt that’s due out in a couple days I suspect you would have seen similiar results in the phone speed comparisons.

  • http://profiles.google.com/vgking699 Bryan Miller

    well thats odd then, because my iphone 4 on at&ts 3G where I live gets 2mbps download and 1.45mbps upload

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