Verizon 4G LTE Destroys Sprint WiMax in Speedtests

Filed under News by Coty Spence on April 2, 2011 at 8:42 AM

HTC Thunderbolt & HTC EVO 4G

Well we can’t say this was totally unexpected. Walter Piecyk and his team at BTIG Research pit 4G LTE and WiMax in a battle to the death of 1,000 speedtest benchmarks. Verizon’s 4G LTE completely destroys WiMax by getting up to 10 times the download speeds. 4G LTE is like getting WiFi where ever you’re at; the signal hardly fluctuates and will easily penetrate any building you’re in. However, these tests were all done in New York City so Sprint’s speeds will vary depending on where you live, but 4G LTE should be pretty consistent. Hit the break for the full rundown!

Verizon 4G LTE vs. Sprint WiMax

The tests were conducted by using a smartphone as the mobile hotspot, then doing the speedtest on a separate device. The specimens here are the newly released HTC Thunderbolt and the classic HTC EVO 4G. Needless to say, 4G LTE wins by a landslide and WiMax really never comes close. As mentioned earlier, your Sprint data speeds will vary depending on your location in the country. We’ve seen WiMax devices get up to 10Mbps before, although it wasn’t quite as consistent as 4G LTE. Having a wireless data connection that will easily penetrate buildings is a huge luxury. As a T-Mobile customer, it’s usually impossible to get speeds above Edge (2G) while inside of a building. Are you surprised by these tests?

via Phonedog, BTIG Research

http://www.briefmobile.com Korey Nicholson

These are bias test. Strength of signal is never disclosed and comparing WiMax to LTE can still not be done correctly due to the low use of LTE. Last week people were getting 14 mb/s download and 32 mb/s upload. Now LTE has already dropped this much after a week? In a month I want a statistically correct analysis completely of the Thunderbolt vs the EVO.
http://www.briefmobile.com Korey Nicholson

And I am low-balling saying a month because that may still be too early. It doesn’t seem like Verizon will be getting many LTE devices soon.
http://briefmobile.com Coty Spence

True, I do agree with you on 4G LTE not having as many users as WiMax right now. I’ve seen people do speedtests comparing two different networks at different signal strengths which is pretty silly, so who knows. I still think 4G LTE is faster, and because of its super low spectrum, it can easily penetrate buildings.
http://www.briefmobile.com Korey Nicholson

Yeah, LTE is faster. That’s a known fact. And 2.5 ghz frequency can’t penetrate buildings as well, that’s a fact. But Sprint’s network vs Verizon’s network is the question. On a fair playing field, who has a faster 4G? No way in the world can you tell right now, not when everyone’s test are bias towards one or the other.

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