A few weeks ago, AT&T released a study (but no raw data) funded by AT&T and conducted by Global Wireless, which proclaimed that AT&T operated the fastest wireless network, hands down. According to the study, AT&T's network was the fastest by "a wide margin," with competitors T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint lagging "by 20 to 60% in national average mobile broadband speed." Now T-Mobile, whose marketing department is punching a little harder than usual, has released a study claiming they offer the fastest wireless data performance in the top 100 U.S. markets. Interestingly, T-Mobile not only doesn't bother to offer any data, they don't even note who the research firm was:Neither AT&T or T-Mobile are "showing their math," so to speak and are keeping their test data confidential, though T-Mobile's latest marketing department effort has taken things to new, murky heights. Are we talking average speeds? Peak speeds? What about upload rates? You don't get to know.

AT&T and T-Mobile's almost-but-not-quite-scientific findings were (for obvious reasons) released right before Verizon launched their faster LTE network in a third of all U.S. markets. While Verizon's offering speeds around 5-10 Mbps, initial reviewers on a largely-uncongested network are seeing some speeds upwards of 20 to 30 Mbps. You'll note that T-Mobile's super-secret study stopped testing in November.