overall and jockeyed back and forth behind Verizon across the markets . AT&T and T-Mobile were especially close : AT&T offered 4G speed in 40.7 % of our tests , while T-Mobile recorded 4G speed in 39.5 % of our tests . '' Of course , carriers do not deploy 4G networks evenly across a given metro area . They tend to focus deployment in more densely populated areas , and along major highways and office or shopping districts . Depending on the city and the carrier , they may also deploy more 4G resources in wealthier neighborhoods . So the report noted : `` In those cities where LTE was not available , Verizon performed markedly slower . Where LTE is present , Verizon is easily the fastest ; where LTE is not , Verizon is among the slowest carriers for data delivery . '' Most mobile users do n't download huge files to their phones , so `` upper 3G '' download speeds -LRB- 1.5-3 Mbps , according to RootMetrics -RRB- will still seem pretty impressive to a typical mobile user . And even `` lower 3G '' speeds -LRB- between 500 kilobytes/second and 1.5 Mbps -RRB- are
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Forget the 4G marketing hype . Which U.S. carriers really offer the fastest mobile-data networks ? According to a new report from RootMetrics -LRB- a company which conducts its own field tests of wireless networks -RRB- , Verizon Wireless currently offers the nation 's fastest 4G -- by far . RootMetrics recently compared 4G networks from the four major U.S. carriers in 27 cities . Across all cities , Verizon performed at 4G speeds in 66 % of tests . What qualifies as 4G speed ? According to RootMetrics , that 's a download speed of at least three megabits per second -- fast enough to download a 30-minute standard-definition TV episode in less than 10 minutes . `` In cities where we could test Verizon 's LTE -LRB- network -RRB- , their average download speeds were roughly equivalent with the other carriers ' maximum download speeds . In several markets , Verizon 's average download speeds actually exceeded the maximum speeds of the other carriers , '' the report said . What about the other carriers ? According to the report , `` AT&T , T-Mobile , and Sprint offered similar performances to one another