It's a boom time for 3G. Where Americans were once happy with hotspots, now they're demanding to be connected anywhere—whether it's with their smartphones, iPads, or laptops. And 3G is beginning to turn into 4G, as wireless carriers start to install faster technologies that can match or beat many home Internet connections.

There's more mobile data competition than ever before, and more people are surfing the Internet on the move. So PCMag.com decided to take a snapshot of America's mobile networks and see who's doing the best in 18 cities. Using more than a dozen staffers and freelancers with software of our own design, we cruised streets from Boise to Miami checking AT&T, Cricket, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Sprint 3G, and Sprint 4G against each other.

In testing 3G and 4G across the continental USA, we wanted to do things differently from the competition, with more cities and more control—blanketing as many places as we could with tests of our own design.

We didn't test voice quality, dropped calls, or coverage areas; while those are very important measurements, these tests were all about mobile Internet. We ran approximately 1,000 rounds of tests (totaling more than 10,000 individual tests) in 20 cities. We had to throw out two cities, Las Vegas and Philadelphia, because of technical problems, but overall our testing produced consistent, repeatable results. Two of our networks, Sprint 4G and Cricket, weren't available in all the cities we tested. That made them ineligible for regional and national awards, though we rated them for the individual cities they served.

Bear in mind mobile networks are constantly changing, and almost always for the better. And because speeds vary based on tower location, network load, device used, and even the weather, we can't predict performance in a specific location; rather, we're giving a snapshot of a specific day's usage in several locations across a metro area.

As we were editing this article, T-Mobile rolled out their new, faster HSPA+ technology in more of the Northeast, Memphis and Las Vegas. Sprint promises more and better 4G WiMAX coverage over the next few months, too. But for now, the speed crown goes to AT&T.

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		National: AT&T With its HSPA 7.2 3G network, AT&T was the fastest (albeit the least consistent) of the four nationwide carriers. The network's dropouts couldn't erase the fact that AT&T's nationwide reach and relatively current technology deliver faster average 3G speeds than the competition.

		Northeast: T-Mobile T-Mobile's aggressive deployment of HSPA+ in New York City, and its solid HSPA 7.2 showings in Boston, Baltimore, and D.C., made it the fastest carrier available in our four Northeastern cities overall. AT&T here was hurt by a low consistency score. While Sprint and Verizon were more consistent, their EVDO technology is inherently slower than HSPA 7.2 or HSPA+. Note that WiMAX was only available in one of our Northeastern cities, Baltimore. Sprint turned WiMAX on in Washington, DC after our testing period ended.

		Southeast: AT&T We tested four cities in the Southeast: Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, and Raleigh. AT&T won the Southeast, as the fastest and most consistent of the national 3G carriers overall. Sprint's 4G WiMAX showed wildly varying results in Atlanta, Charlotte and Raleigh, the three cities where it was installed. Atlanta gave us the fastest WiMAX speed we saw anywhere in the country—but in Raleigh, Sprint's 4G was slower than AT&T's 3G.

		Central: AT&T Industry-leading download and Web speeds let AT&T take the award for our Central region overall, which includes Chicago, Dallas, Denver, St. Louis, and San Antonio. Once again, though, the winner was the least consistent of the four national networks. AT&T only won one of the five Central cities individually, splitting the city laurels with T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint 4G.

		West: AT&T In the western U.S., we tested networks in Boise, LA, Phoenix, Portland, and the San Francisco Bay Area. AT&T won two cities (Phoenix and San Francisco) and the overall crown thanks to commanding Web and download speeds. The West saw Cricket's only city win, in Boise, where that network's reliability (and Sprint 4G's startlingly slow showing) helped push the low-cost carrier to the lead.