Each of the nation's four major wireless providers - AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon - will all tell you they have the fastest mobile data network at some point or another. But who's actually telling the truth and who is doing little more than manipulating the facts to showcase themselves in the best light?
According to PCMag's sixth annual Fastest Mobile Networks test, the clear-cut winner is Verizon for the second year in a row.
To come to that conclusion, the publication ran 131,000 test cycles across 30 different cities. As you can imagine, that involved thousands of miles of driving. The tests specifically focused on data speed and reliability. As such, call quality, dropped calls and coverage didn't factor into the results.
Verizon may have come out as the overall winner but perhaps the bigger news here is that all of the mobile carriers had a respectable showing.
Verizon won in roughly half of the major cities and all of the rural regions. The remaining cities were almost split equally between AT&T and T-Mobile (the former exhibited strongholds in Texas and the Southeast while John Legere's disruptive company had a solid showing in Western cities). Sprint came out ahead in just one city although the publication said it would have earned the honor of "most improved" if that were indeed a category in their testing.
The extensive report is available for viewing over on PCMag's website.
Who do you believe has the best wireless network based on your personal experiences? Let us know in the comments section below!
Image courtesy PCMag