 |
| image courtesy of Lifehacker |
With Verizon’s ready to light their 4G LTE network this Sunday, that makes three of the four major US carriers to offer “4G” speeds to its subscribers. While no one is offering what is supposed to be real 4G speeds, it will work in their favor as a marketing ploy to further compete with each other. Verizon will be offering great speeds but will still be playing catch-up in terms of coverage compared to their competition. But Verizon can easily trump them by offering more 4G-capable devices in 2011. Sprint and T-Mobile currently only have two smartphones and two USB modems that can take advantage of their full 4G speeds but I’m sure they have more devices on the way for 2011 as well. GigaOM has done an excellent job breaking down the three 4G US carriers. You can check it out below after the break.
| 4G Service Providers | Verizon Wireless (LTE) | Sprint/Clearwire (WiMAX) | T-Mobile (HSPA+ 21) |
| Speed – download | 5-12 Mbps | 3-6 Mbps | 5-8 Mbps |
| Speed – upload | 2-5 Mbps | 1 Mbps | 2.4 Mbps in tests |
| Coverage by end of 2010 | 110 million people | 120 million people | 200 million |
| Prices (modem) | $50 for 5 GB/month
$80 for 10 GB/month
|
$60 for unlimited data on 4G +
5 GB on 3G
|
$25 for 200 MB/month
$40 for 5GB/month
|
| Devices | Two USB modems | Two handsets, portable hotspots, modems. | Two phones and modems |
via GigaOM
