AT&T’s 4G LTE Network Beats Verizon’s in New York City
Dec 2, 2011 07:34 PM EDT by 
AT&T has given its New York City customers an early holiday present with a soft launch of the carrier’s 4G LTE network. While AT&T has yet to make a statement, reports have come in that people with 4G LTE-capable devices are getting high-speed data in Manhattan. To take AT&T’s 4G for a spin, we decided to pit the LG Nitro HD for AT&T against Verizon’s Motorola Droid Razr. And so far AT&T is much faster.
In our Fifth Avenue office, the Nitro HD reached a blistering download speed of 23.8 Mbps, making the Razr’s 6.8 Mbps look like molasses. Uploads speeds for AT&T were equally impressive with the Nitro clocking in at 5.7 Mbps compared to the Droid’s pitiful 0.6 Mbps.
While we took in the fall foliage in Madison Square Park, the Nitro HD averaged a 14.3 Mbps download speed, handily beating the Droid Razr’s 6.6 Mbps. The Droid Razr made a small comeback while uploading, posting 6.8 Mbps compared to the Nitro’s 6.6 Mbps.
The speed dipped a little in Union Square, but the Nitro HD was the clear winner, posting a download rate of 10.8 Mbps and an upload speed of 7.9 Mbps. The Droid Razr only managed download and upload speeds of 8.1 and 5.6, Mbps respectively.
So far AT&T’s 4G LTE performance in New York City is impressive, but the carrier doesn’t have nearly as many customers using its network as Verizon does. (We saw similarly ridiculous speeds from Verizon back when its service launched). We look forward to re-testing AT&T’s network once more people start hopping on with 4G LTE devices.
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December 2nd, 2011 at 7:53 pm
I would be shocked if AT&T wasn’t faster considering they have like 3 people on their 4G network right now! I’ll take Verizon over AT&T any day…
December 5th, 2011 at 3:53 pm
You pushed the droid razr on 3g verses the Lg Nitro on 4G LTE no wonder they won by blistering speeds… Now put the 4G against the 4G and make it a fair speed test, also that you did also fail to mention that Verizon has 177 4G LTE markets while ATT only has 11 tops. So to make this fair quit being bias and make it a LEGIT tests
December 6th, 2011 at 8:17 am
@Jared. No way could Verizon’s 3g Network hit those speeds displayed. Lets think about this for a minute. AT&T’s 3g network was behind Verizon’s right? Then guess why had the fastest 3G network? LTE 4G? Guess who will have the fastest?
December 6th, 2011 at 9:06 pm
Zoom in on the speedtest results and look at the network connections. It is 4g lte vs 3g