Sprint's 4G LTE service gets tested in Atlanta

LTE service is slowly making its way to Sprint customers. In fact, the carrier is currently testing the service in a few cities, including Atlanta. As part of its multi-carrier speed test that we told you about earlier Monday evening, PC Magazine was given a specially equipped LG Viper that was enabled to receive Sprint's LTE signals. Where most of the testing done by PC Magazine showed how poor WiMAX compared to Verizon and AT&T's 4G LTE signals, in Atlanta, PC Magazine was able to include results from Sprint's LTE service.

Based on the results, it looks like Sprint is going to be a major 4G competitor in the city. Downloading, AT&T was the fastest with its 4G LTE speed coming in at an average of  slightly over 18Mbps, Sprint's 4G LTE was next with an average of about 13Mbps, followed by Verizon's 4G LTE and T-Mobile's HSPA+ 42Mbps pipelines. In dead amongst 4G signals was Sprint's WiMAX which had an average download speed under 4Mbps. Ouch! When it came to average upload speed, Verizon was first followed by AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and then WiMAX.

Sprint customers should be feeling full of hope seeing this study. Replacing a poor performer like WiMAX with a legitimately fast service like 4G LTE should help Sprint add more customers, especially if it sticks to its unlimited data plans.

source: PCMag