Trying to decide which wireless carrier based of download speeds? A recent study conducted by Fierce Wireless and RootMetrics show that Verizon leads in much of the country.

In a study report released in early December, Fierce Wireless partnered up with RootMetrics to observe maximum sustained downlink speeds in 52 markets. Verizon won in six of eight regions (New England, Mid-Atlantic, Great Lakes, Plains, Southeast, Southwest, Rocky Moutain and West), losing only to T-Mobile in New England and AT&T in the Southwest.

"In addition to studying the individual carriers' performance, RootMetrics also drew general conclusions about the speeds observed in each region. For example, New England was the 'fastest' region overall, offering a 51.75 Mbps weighted maximum downlink speed and 22.5 Mbps weighted maximum uplink speed," reads the report.

"The Great Lakes region came in second (48.8 Mbps weighted maximum downlink and 19.21 Mbps uplink weighted maximum uplink). The Plains came in third, the Southeast came in fourth, while the Southwest came in last, with a weighted maximum downlink speed of 38.47 Mbps."

Almost every carrier in every region exhibited improvement in download speeds from the first half of 2014 to the third quarter of the year. In fact, according to another RootMetrics blog post, all four major U.S. national carriers have made strides in the right direction.

Jennifer Sokolowsky from RootMetrics writes in "Carriers make the 'nice' list with performance improvements" that each of the four major carriers have boosted their networks in various regions around the country. As consumers and their smart mobile devices use more robust services, bandwidth and speed growth have been the focus in carriers' investments.

"Improved mobile network performance is a gift that makes life easier for all of us as we near the end of the year," Sokolowsky says. "Looking ahead to 2015, we'll be expecting even more improvements as carriers work to enhance their networks and keep ahead of ever-growing demand."

Bear in mind that 2016 will also be an incredibly determining time for the future of the major networks. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will be auctioning off the coveted 600MHz frequency in early 2016 (delayed from an originally planned mid-2015 auction). Low frequencies like 600MHz carry signals over a long distance, making them especially crucial to carriers like Sprint and T-Mobile, which don't cover rural America as well as Verizon and AT&T do. 

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