Now that every one of the major carriers’ next-gen wireless plans are officially considered 4G, the trash talking and competition is only going to increase. On that note, Sprint has maintained from the beginning that they were the one, true 4G network. (However, until recently the number of Sprint phones that actually supported WiMAX technology has been quite small.) There’s certain expectations that come with such a claim, namely fast speeds. And while Sprint’s WiMax network is pretty brisk, numerous speed tests by various third party groups have found it to be rather lacking all things considered. With that said, T-Mobile pumped out a press release today citing another 3rd party study that found T-Mobile the fastest wireless carrier in the top 100 cities. But there’e a catch — The study was run between June 2010-November 2010. Verizon’s new LTE network was likely not part of that. And so far, “average” speeds have been in the ~8Mbps range with lows down around 3Mbps with bursts all the way up to 30Mbps! T-Mobile’s equally fast HSPA+ network has seen averages a bit lower, hovering around 4-6Mbps generally.

But even if we throw out the fastest title and give it to Verizon, there’s certainly no denying T-Mobile’s impressive achievements. Just a few short years ago as Verizon and AT&T were bragging about massive 3G networks, T-Mobile was sticking by their 2.5G EDGE network and claiming 3G wasn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, leaving many to wonder how T-Mobile would fair in a world full of super fast 3G networks. Interesting what a few years difference makes, isn’t it?

But the fun isn’t over yet. Next year, Verizon will greatly increase their LTE footprint while T-Mobile will once again upgrade their HSPA+ network from the current max of 21Mbps to 42Mbps. Sprint will continue their pokey rollout of WiMax, and AT&T will begin their LTE rollout as well. Exciting times ahead…

Source: T-Mobile
Via: CellFanatic