Tom's Guide Gives Verizon Award for Fastest Wireless Network

Verizon has won another award for the fastest wireless network, this time from Tom's Guide. The website tested nine major wireless carriers using Galaxy S7 smartphones in six cities: Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Houston. The firm found that Verizon consistently came out on top, with an average downstream speed of 36 Mbps, and an average upstream speed of 14.7 Mbps. Verizon was closely followed by T-Mobile, which reported an average downstream speed of 23.5 Mbps, and an average upstream speed of 16.3 Mbps.

MetroPCS, AT&T and Sprint came in third, fourth and fifth place, respectively.

Verizon was particularly aided by a strong showing in Chicago, where the website says it logged an average download speed of 85 Mbps across six different test sites. The website goes on to note that Verizon Wireless had the best download speeds in both Chicago and New York, and never finished outside the top four in any city. The carrier also had the best app-download times in every city tested.

As for T-Mobile, the website states that indoor performance wasn't as great as with other carriers.

"One thing holding back T-Mobile: its performance indoors," notes the report. "Even in Seattle, where the Uncarrier reigned supreme, it registered dramatically slower download speeds at our three indoor test sites. Houston was the only city where T-Mobile's speed didn't drop when we moved indoors."

And while AT&T had the best download speeds in both Los Angeles and San Francisco, the company turned in the worst average speed performance of all four carriers in Seattle and Chicago. Meanwhile Sprint did well in Chicago and Houston, but didn't perform as solidly in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.