PCWorld magazine did a multi-city comparison test on 3G and 4G data speeds: http://www.pcworld.com/article/253808/3g_and_4g_wireless_speed_showdown_which_networks_are_fastest.html. Bottom line:
"• AT&T's new LTE network turned in the fastest download speeds of any 4G service. Its 3G service was very competitive, too--and those two results help make a strong case for AT&T dual-mode 3G/4G phones. . . .
"• Verizon makes 4G service available in many more locations than other providers do, and its 4G upload speeds are top-of-the-line, but its 4G download speeds don't match AT&T's. And Verizon's 3G speeds are not improving much, especially when compared to the competition."
If you read into the article, Verizon, not surprisingly, disputes the results, but the magazine stands firm by its findings. It also finds that when you have AT&T 4G and it has to drop back to 3G, the drop-off in speed is not as drastic as VZW's.
This is not meant as a slam on Verizon. The trade-off between having the fastest service and having any service at all is unfortunate, but that's how things stand, and my wife and I switched to Verizon in order to get coverage in places where AT&T is not available. Verizon's 4G is still amazingly fast (as PCWorld acknowledges) and it is, if not everywhere, at least in a lot more wheres.
