Now that the Apple iPhone runs over speedy LTE networks offered by Verizon, AT&T and Sprint, the question is which of the three lets the device run faster. At the same time, can LTE speeds beat out the numbers coming from Wi-Fi networks? A test was conducted on a rooftop, quite appropriately in the Big Apple, to get the answers to these questions.
Verizon's LTE network seems to provide the fastest data speeds for the Apple iPhone 5 with an average speed of 16Mbps on the downlink and 18.8Mbps on the uplink. That also beat out the Samsung Galaxy S III which on Big Red's LTE pipeline had average speeds of 13.9Mbps and 14.5Mbps respectively. After Verizon came AT&T with an average download time of 10.5Mbps for the Apple iPhone 5, and an average upload time of 14.2Mbps. The iPhone 5 was the third fastest phone tested, just beating out the HTC One X but behind Big Red's Samsung Galaxy S III. Sprint, without 4G in the area, had to make do with 3G and that provided a snail crawling 1.5Mbps on the downlink while no uplink score could be obtained.
Results of the speed test
Apple has been claiming that the new Apple iPhone 5 would have superior Wi-Fi speed thanks to its support for 5MHz bands in addition to the 2.4MHz. And Apple wasn't just whistling Dixie. The Apple iPhone 5 on 5MHz Wi-Fi had an average download speed of 37.8Mbps vs just 8.7Mbps while using 2.4MHz. Upload speeds had a bigger gap with average scores of 26.9Mbps and 3.7Mbps.
Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.
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