Verizon's LTE has the power to amaze; see Chris Dixon's video of employees at the Hunch office browsing around--"faster than high speed wired broadband," he wrote. Hat tip to PC Mag for putting some context to the meaningless buzzwords "3G" and "4G" with their ranking of the fastest mobile networks in the country, and confirming what we already knew about AT&T.

But LTE isn't available everywhere--travel outside the metro areas where Verizon has infrastructure, and you'll drop back to its 3G network, which rated a 54 to AT&T's 61 on PC Mag's speed index. In the New York metro area, "Verizon's 4G is by far the fastest," the reviewers at PC Mag declared. "Outside the metro areas, AT&T offered the best balance of speed and coverage." T-Mobile's HSPA+ 21 network came in second overall in the Northeast.

Compare this speed race to the abominable state of home internet service in New York (cough, Time Warner). Competition! We love it.