BTIG Research recently blemished Sprint’s WiMax network against Verizon’s LTE network in New York City, testing the HTC EVO (Sprint) and the HTC ThunderBolt (Verizon Wireless). BTIG Research analyst Walter Piecyk published the results of a mobile broadband study conducted in New York City, using two smartphones — the HTC Thunderbolt and HTC EVO 4G as mobile hotspots and collected more than 1,000 data points using them to serve as 4G modems. Piecyk used an Apple iPad 2 and a Toshiba laptop to connect to the respective hotspots and gather speed data.The test found Verizon’s averages to be 9.1Mbps downlink and 5.28Mbps uplink, with Sprint registering a slow 1.17 down and .66 up.

But Sprint has retaliated, terming the testing “inaccurate.”, as quoted from Sprint spokesperson Stephanie Vinge-Walsh`s e-mail to the BGR website.The wireless carrier did its own tests, telling IntoMobile that its own third-party testing shows its WiMAX speeds average 4-5Mbps down, much higher than BTIG’s numbers, but still slower than Verizon based on BTIG’s research. Sprint adds thatit is preposterous to give Verizon “serious props for speed” when you consider that the ThunderBolt is thus far the only 4G smartphone running on the network.

Sprint says that a consistent, long-standing experience based on a network loaded with customers is what eventually matters. It can be noted that when Verizon first launched LTE in December 2010, the first set of speed tests by reviewers of the network were bizarrely fast. Peak speeds were observed to be in excess of 20 Mbps and some even breached the 30 Mbps mark. Verizon only advertises that it will provide average speeds between 5 Mbps and 12 Mbps for downloads. The network was incredibly fast becauseit was unloaded. Only a few dozen people were using it, not tens or hundreds of thousands. With all that capacity to themselves, it is understandable why the initial results were so supportive to Verizon.