Which Cell Phone Carrier Reigns Supreme?

Advanced Frequency Engineering (AFE), a consulting firm whose principles have decades of experience in RF engineering and wireless technology, performed a comprehensive study of the availability and performance of the 4G LTE services offered by Sprint Nextel Corporation in comparison with those provided by Verizon Communications, Inc. and AT&T, Inc.

The study was carried out from mid-August to early September 2012 in anticipation of the recent launch of the iPhone 5, Apple's first 4G LTE iPhone.

AFE’s work involved almost 1,000 miles of drive tests, as well as extensive testing at fixed locations. The study was focused on selected markets where all three of these carriers have launched 4G LTE – Dallas/Fort Worth, Kansas City and Atlanta.

This report, which contains detailed findings and methodologies, is available for sale for $5,000 from AFE to interested parties and industry participants.

The report contains drive test maps of actual observed available Sprint 4G LTE coverage and provides a comparison between Sprint and the two other carriers for each market studied. The report is said to be providing in-depth information with regard to:

the observation of the 4G LTE market coverage available to subscribers

performance of typical user activities: Web surfing, Skype calls, streaming video, checking e-mail and uploading and downloading files

measurements of ping-test latency, download and upload speeds

Samsung Galaxy S IIl 4G LTE handsets were used by AFE to characterize the LTE coverage of the three wireless carriers and other specialized drive-test and spectrum analyzer equipment. In future months, AFE plans to repeat the study to assess carrier 4G LTE deployment progress.

In 1997, AFE began serving the wireless community and employs professionals who have over 27 years of RF engineering and wireless technology experience.

AFE implements customized solutions including engineering consulting, site and tower design, zoning assistance, microwave backhaul engineering, drive test / signal data collection and analysis, competitive tower site analysis, FAA Part 77 analysis, shared site interference analysis, safety training and system design.

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