T-Mobile's "4G" (HSPA+) Network Now in 75 Areas With Two New Devices

With 75 new areas now have access to T-Mobile's HSPA+ service, you want a "4G" with the device for use with network facilities. T-Mobile myTouch 4G and Dell Inspiron Mini 10 4G netbook are available from today, but you'd have to be pretty crazy to pass up the G2.

BELLEVUE, Wash. - Nov. 2, 2010 - T-Mobile USA, Inc. today announced the expansion of its 4G mobile broadband network to six additional metro areas, and introduced two new products designed to tap into its 4G service. Tomorrow marks the national retail availability of the
T-Mobile® myTouch® 4G and T-Mobile's first 4G netbook, the Dell™ Inspiron™ Mini 10 4G. With typical download speeds that are on par with or faster than competing 4G technologies, and service availability in 75 metropolitan markets throughout the United States, the T-Mobile network now offers a super-fast, next generation mobile broadband experience to more people than any other wireless network in the country.

"4G is about performance and today T-Mobile's HSPA+ network is delivering 4G speeds that match and often beat WiMAX and are readily comparable to what early LTE will deliver. Our 4G network is capable of theoretical speeds up to 21Mbps and we have seen average download speeds approaching 5 Mbps on our myTouch 4G phone in some cities with peak speeds of nearly 12 Mbps. Further, independent reviewers have seen average download speeds on our webConnect Rocket between 5 and 8 Mbps with peak speeds up to 8-10Mbps," said Neville Ray, chief technology officer, T-Mobile USA. "The footprint of our 4G service is not something that competitors are going to match anytime soon, and starting today, we will begin marketing our network advantage with TV commercials advertising ‘America's Largest 4G Network' from T-Mobile."
The "America's Largest 4G Network" message will be communicated in an iconic, arresting and memorable way through national TV and digital advertisements that will begin airing today on major TV networks and cable TV stations, including ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and TNT, and appearing on websites, including AOL, MSN, Amazon.com and easily viewable on T-Mobile's YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/tmobile.
T-Mobile expanded the availability of its 4G network to six additional metropolitan areas, including Chicago, Ill.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; Ft. Wayne, Ind.; Louisville, Ky.; and Raleigh-Durham and Wilmington, N.C. T-Mobile customers with 4G devices in 75 metropolitan areas can now enjoy faster Web browsing, uninterrupted video streaming and quicker downloads at no additional cost.
"Consumers do not understand the technical alphabet soup of technologies involved in 4G, but for our purposes we define WiMAX, LTE and HSPA+ as 4G technologies," said Chris Nicoll, distinguished research fellow, Yankee Group. "HSPA+ is evolving a far more ambitious and long-term road map than was originally envisioned. T-Mobile is using an upgrade to HSPA+ to deliver faster 4G speeds today and is quickly bringing a number of HSPA+ devices to market that greatly enhance the mobile data experience for its customers."
In addition to the network expansion, T-Mobile continues to broaden its lineup of products that tap into its 4G network. Available today is the stylish and powerful T-Mobile myTouch 4G smartphone. Designed to access faster speeds on T-Mobile's 4G network, the myTouch 4G also includes a front-facing camera for Video Chat through Yahoo! Messenger or QIK, HD Camcorder with Screen Share by Twonky™, 5-megapixel camera with flash, Android 2.2, and additional exclusive T-Mobile features such as Genius Button™, powered by Dragon Dictation from Nuance Communications, myModes and Faves Gallery™. The myTouch 4G is appearing in a national ad campaign beginning today and will be the featured device at T-Mobile retail stores nationwide this holiday season. Also available today is the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 4G, T-Mobile's first netbook to feature built-in access to T-Mobile's 4G mobile broadband network. It also includes Windows 7 Starter Edition - Microsoft Corp.'s latest operating system - and a fast processor for easy Web surfing, communication, photo sharing and multimedia playback in one small, ultraportable device.
"With an upgrade path that continues to provide room for considerable speed enhancements, T-Mobile's 4G network is purpose-built for continued growth. We are now on pace to increase our 4G footprint - reaching 200 million people by the end of this year - with plans to offer 42Mbps theoretical speeds in 2011," added Ray. "As customer demand for wireless data increases, T-Mobile is well-positioned to compete based on the speed, breadth and evolution path of our mobile broadband service."
Additional 4G products already available from T-Mobile and designed to take advantage of the faster 4G service include the T-Mobile webConnect® Rocket™ 2.0 laptop stick and the high-powered T-Mobile G2™ with Google™ smartphone. T-Mobile's 4G smartphones, the myTouch 4G and the T-Mobile G2, are powered by the Android 2.2 operating system, which provides tethering and Wi-Fi Sharing capabilities. Beginning this holiday season, T-Mobile will offer a Tethering and Wi-Fi Sharing service plan that allows customers to use their smartphone as wireless modem for connecting laptops and other devices to the Internet through the T-Mobile mobile broadband network. Customers can add the Tethering and Wi-Fi Sharing plan to their Web – Unlimited $30/monthly plan for an additional $14.99/month.
Product Availability
T-Mobile plans to offer a selection of affordable data plans for both smartphones and broadband products, with smartphone data plans starting as low as $10/month. T-Mobile customers do not pay a premium for access to its 4G network. For more information on T-Mobile products, services, pricing and promotions, visit http://www.t-mobile.com.
The myTouch 4G is available nationwide tomorrow through T-Mobile retail stores, online at http://www.t-mobile.com, at select third-party dealers, and at leading national retailers including Best Buy, Costco, RadioShack, Sam's Club and Target. Customers can visit http://mytouch.t-mobile.com for more information about the myTouch family of smartphones including the myTouch 4G.
The Dell™ Inspiron™ Mini 10 4G is available tomorrow at http://www.t-mobile.com.

Samsung Galaxy Tab Will Be on Every Major Carrier (There's a Wi-Fi Version Too)

Samsung's Galaxy Tab—which still sounds more like a horrendous soft drink with a movie tie-in than an Android tablet—is coming to every major carrier this year. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile.
It's "arriving in time for holiday shopping," according to Samsung. What they're not talking about is price: How much the Tab is going to cost, and how much it'll cost after the carriers knock off a couple hundred bucks in exchange for tying yourself to them for two years.
They're calling it a "premium" device though, so expect slightly 'spensive, even if you go with the Wi-Fi only version. Dear God, let the Sprint version have 4G (Update: Nope. Boooo.).

This is what Samsung's Media Hub looks like on the Tab. Media Hub is like their version of iTunes, but for video—you can rent or buy movies and TV shows, and share them with up to 5 other Media Hub devices (right now, other Galaxy devices).

Okay, some fresh impressions. It's more like a tall, skinny Kindle than it is a small iPad. (It's like half an iPad, and weighs half as much too.) It's widescreen, with a relatively pixel-dense screen versus the iPad, since it's cramming about the same amount of pixels into a tighter space. So, as a straight reading device in terms of the screen, size and portability, it's probably going to be a better experience. (Thank you Kindle app.)
The size works well enough for the Tab insofar as it's scaling up Android 2.2 and that the relatively small jump from, say, a 4.3-inch phone to a 7-inch tablet means everything pretty much works without having to use a whole new UI. So, a lot of Android looks the same, just bigger. And it works, usually—in Gmail, in the Android Market, in the home screen, the Kindle app. (However, the Weather Channel app refused to scale up, so it looked like an iPhone app running on the iPad, with a black border around it.)
The UI itself, Samsung's enhancements work better here than I think they do on a phone—like the iPhone-like app screen, with pages of apps, versus the standard Android infinite scroll. The Media Hub looks pretty crappy and third-rate, on the other hand. It's pretty quick too, about as fast compared to fast Android phones as the iPad was relative to the iPhone. Android 2.2 is a lot of the reason why—I think Android 2.1 could've got painful, quick.
It's definitely got the potential to be something, if nothing else.

Vonage VoIP Apps Now Available for T-Mobile and AT&T Android Phones

T-Mobile and AT&T customers with Android phones can now finally download a Vonage VoIP app to their devices to make cheap international calls over Wi-Fi or 3G. They'll also get free domestic calls, but only over Wi-Fi.

Vonage Delivers Worldwide Calling Savings to T-Mobile and AT&T Android Users

HOLMDEL, N.J., April 9, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX News Network/ — Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE: VG), a leading provider of high-quality voice and messaging services over broadband networks, today announced the expansion of its Vonage Mobile offerings to AT&T and T-Mobile devices that use the Android mobile operating system.

Vonage Mobile will be available to download for AT&T and T-Mobile Android devices at www.vonage.com later today and is already available for iPhone(R), BlackBerry(R) and iPod touch(R) devices. Vonage Mobile customers enjoy high-quality, outbound international calling over Wi-Fi and cellular networks as well as free domestic calls over Wi-Fi.

"We are focused on ensuring that our customers can enjoy all the benefits of their Vonage service from any location using any device that can access the Internet," said Michael Tempora, senior vice president of product management. "We will continue to expand our offerings in 2010 to include a robust set of voice and messaging services that utilize Wi-Fi and 3G wireless networks."

The Vonage Mobile application gives customers the flexibility to choose between Vonage World Mobile, which includes unlimited international calling to more than 60 countries, or Vonage Mobile Pay-Per-Use. Vonage Mobile Pay-Per-Use provides savings of more than 50% - compared to rates charged by wireless carriers - for calls to dozens of countries.

With Vonage Mobile, there are no access numbers or new phone numbers to give to friends and family. Customers simply enter an international number or select a contact from the existing contacts on a mobile device and hit send.

To follow Vonage on Twitter, please visit www.twitter.com/vonage_voice. To become a fan on Facebook, go to www.facebook.com/vonage.

*iPhone allows calls on both cellular and Wi-Fi networks. BlackBerry allows calls over cellular networks. iPod touch allows calls over Wi-Fi networks. Service subject to minimum monthly usage fee, taxes and certain other fees. Forfeiture rules apply. See Terms of Service for details. There are important 911 limitations when using Vonage for Mobile service. See vonagemobile.com/tos for details.

[Vonage]

T-Mobile's Crazy Fast HSPA+ 3G Network To Reach Over 100 Metro Areas This Year

T-Mobile has announced that they're rolling out their super speedy HSPA+ network to over 100 metro areas covering 185 million people in 2010. More than half of that will be complete by the middle of the year. That's aggressive.

HSPA+ is an easier roll out than 4G, because it's overlaid over T-Mobile's existing 3G footprint. It also gets competitive speeds; its 21Mbps is three times what you're used to from current 3G technologies. And in the few regions it's currently available, like Philadelphia, it really does fly. Even better, most current T-Mobile devices are already compatible with HSPA+, meaning that customers won't need to upgrade their smartphone to get an upgraded network experience.

Products that'll get the HSPA+ treatment include a Dell Mini 10 netbook—welcome news, given that it's our favorite of the current crop. It'll only be available in limited markets to start.

There's also the T-Mobile webConnect Rocket USB Laptop Stick, available next week, which is the first HSPA+ stick available from a major carrier.

For phones, there's the Nokia Nuron, and the Cliq XT, and most enticingly the HTC HD2.

There are also plans for personal Hot Spots, although nothing concrete was announced today, and the execs were totally mum on tethering.

T-Mobile to Rollout the Nation's Fastest 3G Wireless Network with HSPA+ to More than 100 Metropolitan Areas in 2010

T-Mobile delivers home broadband-like experiences on-the-go when surfing the Web, accessing multimedia features, sharing content and more

LAS VEGAS and BELLEVUE, Wash. - March 23, 2010 - Today at International CTIA Wireless 2010, T-Mobile USA, Inc., showcased the nation's fastest 3G wireless network on its latest mobile broadband devices. The company unveiled plans to upgrade its national high-speed 3G service to the High Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+) technology, which will deliver customers data speeds faster than the current 3G network technology1 . By the end of 2010, T-Mobile expects to have HSPA+ deployed across the breadth of its 3G footprint, covering more than 100 metropolitan areas and 185 million people.

T-Mobile hosted live demonstrations of the home broadband-like HSPA+ data speeds on a variety of products including the new Dell™ Inspiron™ Mini 10 with T-Mobile® webConnect™ - T-Mobile's first netbook - which launches March 24 online and in T-Mobile stores in select markets.2

"Consumers want a mobile broadband experience that's easy and as good as their connection at home on the best wireless devices available," said Neville Ray, senior vice president of engineering and operations for T-Mobile USA. "This year T-Mobile will upgrade its national 3G network to HSPA+ which will support faster speeds and give customers a superior wireless data experience when they access their mobile social network, stream videos or share content. T-Mobile's network is primed to deliver the speeds that today's data users crave."

T-Mobile successfully launched its HSPA+ network service in Philadelphia last fall providing customers access to one of the fastest and most modern wireless networks in the U.S. T-Mobile now has made HSPA+ commercially available in new markets including major areas of New York City, New Jersey, Long Island and suburban Washington, D.C., with deployment in Los Angeles coming very soon.

The company will continue to aggressively expand the availability of HSPA+ in additional 3G markets, putting the necessary backhaul capacity in place to support the very fast speeds. Today, its 3G high-speed data network covers more than 206 million people.

T-Mobile's HSPA+ network is outperforming competing 3G wireless networks with speeds up to three times faster. Blazing fast actual peak download speeds3 were demonstrated today in Las Vegas using both new and current mobile broadband devices, including the T-Mobile webConnect Rocket™ USB Laptop Stick, the first HSPA+ capable device from a national U.S .wireless carrier; the Dell Inspiron Mini 10; the HTC HD2; the Motorola CLIQ XT™ and the T-Mobile myTouch® 3G.

"The webConnect Rocket and Dell Inspiron Mini 10 are the latest mobile broadband products that deliver real customer benefits with faster speeds available today," said Cole Brodman, chief technology and innovation officer for T-Mobile USA. "And the great thing about T-Mobile's 3G network evolution is its backward compatibility - most of our 3G smartphones will deliver a better mobile Web experience. Customers don't have to spend money on a device upgrade, which is a rarity in consumer electronics."

Dell Inspiron Mini 10 with T-Mobile webConnect
T-Mobile's newest mobile broadband product, the Dell Inspiron Mini 10, features built-in access to T-Mobile's 3G network, Windows® 7 - Microsoft Corp.'s latest operating system - and the Intel® Atom™ processor N450 for easy Web surfing, instant messaging, e-mail, social networking, photo sharing and superb multimedia playback in one small, ultra-portable device. The Dell Inspiron Mini 10 is small and lightweight, weighing just three pounds, and its integrated six-cell battery easily provides up to eight hours of continuous usage. The Dell Inspiron Mini 10 also comes preloaded with T-Mobile's webConnect Manager software to help customers manage usage and connections, including connecting to T-Mobile's 3G network, Wi-Fi and access to thousands of T-Mobile HotSpot network locations nationwide.

Pricing and Availability
The Dell Inspiron Mini 10 will be available tomorrow nationwide online at http://www.t-mobile.com and in T-Mobile retail locations in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Miami for $199.99 with two-year contract and qualifying webConnect data plan.

For more information about T-Mobile's webConnect family of products, including the webConnect Rocket and Dell Inspiron Mini 10, please visit http://www.t-mobile.com/webconnect.

3G coverage is not available everywhere. For more information about T-Mobile's 3G services, mobile broadband products, device features, or the offers and services mentioned, see http://www.t-mobile.com.

T-Mobile HSPA+ Speed Test: 3G Gets Pumped Up to 21Mbps

Streaming HD video. Uploading gigantic files. Surfing the web comfortably. These aren't things you'd normally expect on 3G. But T-Mobile's beefed up HSPA+ network, which I tested recently in the first city to launch, handled these tasks beautifully. Simultaneously.

While the other carriers are looking past 3G to 4G technologies—Sprint with its WiMax already up and running, and AT&T and Verizon banking on LTE—T-Mobile is the one doing the most to upgrade the 3G network it already has in place. Overhauling their existing HSPA 3G network to HSPA+ promises theoretical speeds of 21Mbps—three times faster than the 3G we know and don't quite love.

In my testing throughout Philadelphia, the first city to get the upgrade, I found that I was routinely getting triple the speeds we expect from 3G nationally—take a look at our nationwide 3G megatest if you need a refresher—with the HSPA+ network averaging in the high 3Mbps range and peaking at 7.81Mbps in one location.

The 3x jump makes a big difference. Consistently averaging download speeds in the high 3Mbps range might not seem like a terrific improvement, but in practice it puts the experience a lot closer to the broadband you take for granted at home than the crippled access you're often stuck with on 3G. And I really tried to push the HSPA+ network by using the internet the way I would at home, at my most extreme. At one point, I was uploading a several-hundred megabyte file to FTP briskly (around 150KB/sec), downloading a torrent even more briskly (~350KB/sec), and still loading web pages quickly and all at once, instead of piece by frustrating piece. At the end of the day, when I was done with all my testing and just catching up with the stuff I follow on the internet, I didn't immediately ditch the 3G and jump back on Wi-Fi. I didn't feel the need to.

Philadelphia is the first city to get pumped up to HSPA+, though T-Mobile is aiming for coverage in major cities across the nation by the end of the year. Since it's not a new network, just an expansion of their current one, many customers who live in areas with HSPA+ coverage will see improvements in speed with the gear they're using right now. Anything that's HSPA 7.2 compatible—that includes HTC HD2, myTouch, Moto CLIQ, Moto CLIQ XT, Samsung Behold II, HTC Touch Pro 2, Dash 3G—will notice snappier speeds. But to really see things crank, you'll need a dedicated HSPA+ device, and T-Mobile's first is the webConnect Rocket USB stick. I tried out the Rocket, which works with Mac and PC, all over Philly, and was impressed with the results.

I tried the same tests we used in our nationwide 3G test: several runs of speedtest.net, several timed page loads of the Wikimedia Commons Hubble page, and several timed loads of a big Hubble image itself.

Here's where I went. Some of the places were suggested by T-Mobile as optimal testing spots—and cheating or not, I followed them in search of the biggest bandwidth readings. But even when I was off on my own, I found that my speeds rarely dipped to levels currently attainable by standard 3G, and were often, as you can see, much much faster, including latency under 100ms at almost every location.

View Philly HSPA+ Testing in a larger map

The webConnect Rocket USB stick is on sale now and can be purchased for $99 with a 2-year contract or $199 without one. With the contract, you get T-Mobile's EvenMore Data Plan, which will run you $59.99/mo for 5GB data or $29.99/mo for 200MB data, and without it the Rocket gets the EvenMore Data Plus Plan, costing $49.99/mo for 5GB and $19.99 a month for 200MB. If you pay full price up front, the stick pays for itself in 10 months, which might be a good deal, as it's just about how long HSPA+ will enjoy its mobile broadband crown until AT&T and Verizon start deploying LTE in 2011.

That 5GB data cap, however, could be a problem. With the 3G speeds we're used to just surfing the web can be a chore. Downloading big files or watching HD video were usually out of the question. But since the HSPA+ feels like your broadband at home, it's easy to treat it that way, and I can imagine users racking up 5GB dangerously quickly. By my back of the napkin calculations, at the speeds I saw, it'd only take about 4 hours of continuously downloading files to eat up your month's allowance. I forsee customers clamoring for beefed up plans to match T-Mobile's beefed up network.

T-Mobile says they are planning "broad national deployment" for HSPA+ by the end of 2010 and will be naming specific cities at the CTIA conference starting next week. How aggressively they roll out the upgrades will determine the fate of HSPA+, if it emerges as a worthwhile pre-4G alternative or if it falls to the footnotes of mobile broadband history. But if you have the need for speed and HSPA+ makes its way to your city, it's definitely worth your attention. It's so fast, you might forget it's 3G.

Our 2010 12-City 3G Data Mega Test: AT&T Won

Given carrier reputation and our own iPhone call drops, we were pretty surprised to discover, through careful testing in 12 markets, that AT&T's has pretty consistently the fastest 3G network nationwide, followed closely—in downloads at least—by Verizon Wireless.

Let's get this straight right away: We didn't test dropped voice calls, we didn't test customer service, and we didn't test map coverage by wandering around in the boonies. We tested the ability of the networks to deliver 3G data in and around cities, including both concrete canyons and picket-fenced 'burbs. And while every 3G network gave us troubles on occasion, AT&T's wasn't measurably more or less reliable than Verizon's.

It was measurably faster, however, download-wise, in 6 of the 12 markets where we tested, and held a significantly higher national average than the other carriers. Only Verizon came close, winning 4 of the 12 markets. For downloads, AT&T and Verizon came in first or second in nine markets, and in whatever location we tested, both AT&T and Verizon 3G were consistently present. If you're wondering about upload speeds, AT&T swept the contest, winning 12 for 12.

The Cities

Last year, we did an 8-city coast-to-coast test, and called Sprint the big winner. This year, we have results from 11 cities coast-to-coast, and even got to test (during what was otherwise vacation time) on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Also, unlike last year, we were able to test T-Mobile's new 3G network, active in all the markets we visited (except, at the time, Maui). For being such a latecomer, T-Mo did well, and the numbers show even more promise from them.

We tried to spread the love around this year, geographically, hitting cities we didn't get to last year (at the cost of losing a few from '08). Besides Maui, we hit Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco/Bay Area and Tampa.

The Methodology

Our testing regimen was based on the same scheme as last year: We picked five locations in each city, including at least one "downtown" location that was considered a suburb. The selections were arbitrary, or fixed but logical—landmarks, residences, etc. (Note: Due to timing constraints, Chicago and Maui only had three test locations.)

Our hardware consisted of two identical stripped-down Acer Timeline laptops running Windows Vista, and four 3G wireless modems requested from the carriers. We allowed them to make the choice of hardware, simply asking for their "best performing" model. Once up and running, here are the tests we ran:

• Bandwidth & Latency: Speedtest.net - Reports upload and download bandwidth in megabits per second, as well as ping latency in milliseconds. We performed this test five times at each location on each modem.

• Pageload: Hubble images at Wikimedia - A 4.42MB web page with 200 4KB thumbnails, it was fully reloaded three times, and timed using the Firefox plug-in YSlow. The three time readings were averaged.

• Download: Wikimedia's Abell 2667 galaxy cluster photo - This single 7.48MB JPEG is a clear test of how fast you can download stuff from the cloud, and again, we hard refreshed this file three times, and measured time using YSlow for an accurate human-error-free reading.

This was a test of 3G performance. Even though Sprint and its tech partner Clearwire have intrepidly released 4G networks in half of the tested markets—Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas, Maui, Portland and Seattle—we only tested Sprint's 3G network. The reason should be obvious: While we performed the test with laptop cards on PCs, it's supposed to serve as a test of the network's ability to deliver service to all devices, including smartphones, dumbphones and laptops. Show us a Palm Pre WiMax edition—better yet, sell 100,000 of them—and then we'll switch it up. And while you may argue that this 3G test still doesn't adequately reflect your experience with your iPhone, at least it's the same network, and may serve to rule out AT&T's data pipe as the independent cause for all those infamous dropped calls.

(On a side note, when multiple carriers release 4G networks, we'll definitely conduct a comparative test of them all, using new parameters, and focused around laptop use.)

The Results

Now that you know how we ran the test, here are the top finishers in each market, plus some pretty bar graphs showing you how bandwidth compares.

Though we tested for uploads and downloads, we focused our additional tests on the downstream, as it's the more important direction, in the minds of most consumers and most carriers. The anomaly there is AT&T, which has dramatically good upload bandwidth, even when its download bandwidth doesn't keep up. Fast uploads are a priority for AT&T, and will soon be for T-Mobile, which recently turned on faster uploading in NYC, which you can see in our test results. Meanwhile, although Verizon technically came in second in uploads as well as downloads, it doesn't seem to treat this as a major priority.

When it came to downloads, though, the competition was markedly stiffer:

Atlanta - AT&T, followed by Verizon
Bay Area/San Francisco - AT&T, followed by Verizon
Chicago - AT&T, followed by Verizon then Sprint
Denver - AT&T, followed by Verizon
Las Vegas - Verizon, followed by AT&T
Los Angeles - AT&T, followed by Sprint
Maui - Verizon, followed by AT&T
New York - AT&T, followed by T-Mobile
Phoenix - Verizon, followed by T-Mobile
Portland - T-Mobile, followed by Verizon
Seattle - Verizon, followed by T-Mobile
Tampa - Sprint, followed by AT&T

Is That The End?

No. We've compiled the following gallery with all the data from each test location in the 12 markets, so you can see on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood level who won what. This also includes latency, pageload and download numbers, so you can track the performance in several ways. (The data above is bandwidth, though as you'll see, that was generally representative of the overall performance. If a carrier was tops in bandwidth, it was usually tops in download time.) These tests are all just "snapshots in time," as the carriers like to say, so feel free to bitch about where your experience doesn't reflect our results. We stand by them, but acknowledge that network performance is changing all the time, and experiences very regular hiccups.

Regarding latency, you'll notice it didn't appear to affect actual user experience—3G isn't really up for Modern Warfare 2, if that's what you're thinking—we will gladly show you latency averages, as well as pageload and file download averages, broken out for every market on the test.

Special thanks to all of the excellent testers we enlisted, Mark Wilson, Chris Mascari, John Herrman, Kyle VanHemert, Dan Nosowitz, Matt Buchanan and Rosa Golijan from our own team, along with Tamara Chadima and the indefatigable Dennis Tarwood. You guys were troopers, and I'm pretty sure FedEx either loves you or hates you. Thanks to John Mahoney for helping develop the initial tests that we've continually refined, to Chris Jacob for mapping all the locations, and to Don Nguyen for the mad number crunching—you truly are a spreadsheet pimp.

Note: Some of you may have noticed that San Diego is among the cities highlighted on the top illustration—and that Maui is not. The reason is that while we did testing in three great San Diego locations, one of the locations didn't get any Sprint or T-Mobile service, and the already fairly thin dataset was rendered too compromised for any kind of usable report. As for Maui's absence, Maui's just too far out in the Pacific to make for a pretty map shot.