4G Wireless Carriers Compared: Sprint vs. T-Mobile vs. Verizon

December 2, 2010 By Molly McHugh

Competition among 4G wireless carriers is heating up, with Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon all in the game. Wondering which 4G wireless carrier is for you? Check out our comparison of coverage, prices, speed and more.


Launched	September 2008	March 23, 2010	December 5, 2010
Coverage	Currently covers 74 cities. Claims it will cover 120 million people by the end of 2010.	Currently 80 cities. Claims it will cover 200 million people by the end of 2010.	As of Sunday, 38 metropolitan areas and 60 airports. Claims it will cover 110 million people by the end of 2010.
Technology	WiMax	HSPA+	LTE
Advertised Speeds	Downloads: Claims maximum of up to 10 Mbps; averages 3 to 6 Mbps Uploads: Up to 3.1 Mbps	Downloads: Claims speeds of up to 21 Mbps; averages 5 to 8 Mbps Uploads: Up to 5.7 Mbps	Downloads: Claims 5 to 12 Mbps (no average yet) Uploads: Claims 2 to 5 Mbps (no average yet)
Hardware	4G USB Device U1910 4G Desktop Modem CPEi25150 by Motorola Samsung Epic 4G, Galaxy S phone HTC EVO 4G Cradlepoint MBR-1000 4G Broadband Router (for business)	webConnect Rocket 2.0 laptop stick webConnect Rocket laptop stick myTouch 4G smartphone G2 smartphone Dell Inspiron Mini 10 4G netbook	LG VL600 (4G LTE USB modem) Pantech UML290 (4G LTE USB modem)
Rates	Unlimited data plan (within the Sprint network) – (starts at) $49.99 month for USB modems, Evo 4G and Epic 4G users pay $10 monthly surcharge on top of existing data fees 5 GB/month – $50 10 GB/month – $80	Unlimited data plan, reduced speeds if exceeding 5GB/month – $49.99/month for new customers, $39.99 for existing 200 MB/month, 10-cent fee for each MB over – $29.99/month for new customers, $24.99 for existing Prepaid mobile broadband plans: $10 week pass for 100MB; $30 month pass for 300MB; $50 month pass for 1GB 2.0 Laptop stick – $199.99 no contract, $49.99 (after mail-in rebate) with two year contract	5GB/month – $50 10GB/month – $80 (both plans include $10/GB overage fee) 4G USB modems – $49 (after $50 mail-in rebate) and two year contract

Showing 10 comments

Miguel at 4:46pm 3rd December 2010 After to many comparations on each network, I'll give my vote for T-mobile. Even though it doesn't have the best phones yet, you can sure caunt with the faster speeds, it covers more areas, and better yet it's more affordable.
nick_mokey at 8:24am 3rd December 2010 Hey guys, Tables were botched on this for a while, including the T-Mobile one which got cut in half somehow. Apologizes for any confusion, it's been remedied!
Brianna Moore at 5:43am 3rd December 2010 Sprint is the best...
Daniel at 8:20pm 2nd December 2010 Plus T-mobile's data pricing is all jacked up on here, 200 mb a month is $10 a month, and unlimited is 30, throttled to 3g at 5gb never charging overages. Oh an there 4g network is in way more than 80 cities but until they get enough of there towers up in a city they won't claim it. For example its up and running for most of Nashville but they won't tell you that.
Stephen McAteer at 6:18pm 2nd December 2010 there is a problem with the chart... viewing the page with IE9, FIrefox 4, and Google Chrome, all yields the same problem..the Rate section has everything under Sprint.
1. claymaker at 7:28pm 2nd December 2010 Ditto
  1. a non at 8:01pm 2nd December 2010 guess they didn't finish their research Tmobile plan is unlimited data, texts, and 1500 anytime minutes (plus unlimited nights, weekends, and mobile-to-mobile minutes) for $79.99 Not sure about speeds.
    JAJA at 9:35pm 29th December 2010 Damn...here in Canada you get Unlim voice,data,text call display, waiting,for40$ with with vm included.
    Justin at 5:25pm 30th December 2010 Wow, unlimited everything for 40 bucks? Who has that plan? I'm gonna look it up
    
    Boris Braz at 10:04pm 16th March 2011 I've got 5 lines on my account at Sprint with 1500 anytime minutes to landlines, unlimited calling to and from any mobile of any operator, and unlimited data, text, nights 7p.m.-7a.m., weekends all for $218 after tax - $43.60 per line. And it just became so after I got three 4G phones with $10 4G surcharge. BTW 4G speed averages 3.5-4 Mbps in Tacoma, WA area and 3.5-5 Mbps in Seattle, WA. Keeping all that i mind doesn't it sound pretty affordable?