Let me offer some clarification.
But first I want to assure you that I am not advocating for ANY carrier, as they are all about the same. I know, I've been using smartphones since the category was established and I've had an obscene number of unlocked phones. I'm such an enthusiast.
I'm not married to any brand or carrier, I enjoy them all and some are simply better than others.
To the topic of 4G and AT&T.
If you follow mobile phones as closely as I do you know that AT&T was THE LAST to advertise 4G. And yes, they did not offer it, even though they advertised it.
Why? Because when you think about it, it's an American tradition to use false advertising to keep up with the competition. Everyone does it, especially industries like the drug industry, the auto industry etc.
I am not justifying or saying that AT&T was right for doing it, but they were backed into a corner by those like Verizon that have slightly faster networks, now and yet theirs is not a full 4G either.
Many people do not have a full understanding of how cell phone networks function and the differences in the protocols they use. As a result the companies and advertisers take advantage of this.
OK, let's put false advertising behind us.
What is the reality?
It's that indeed AT&T is likely to have one of the first widely available 4G services very shortly. They've been quietly working in the background on network buildout and as I mentioned only began advertising it once the pressure from the competition forced them too.
My personal experience with Verizon and AT&T is that they are both pretty responsible and offer decent (not fantastic) customer service.
About the only difference other than the fact that AT&T is GSM and Verizon is CDMA, is the fact that traditionally Verizon nickel and dimes you, so you end up paying more each month for similar service as AT&T.
Bottom line, No Carrier has great full 4G coverage with one exception. That's Sprint. I had an EVO 4G for just over six months and it was indeed faster, how much... not as much as I had expected.
In real life usage, and I use a lot of data it was about 20% faster loading web pages and navigating. This is far less than they would have you believe. So once again, even their network is lacking.
At the end of the day it will be nearly a full year before we have good 4G networks across all the major carriers. I just happen to know this with good authority as I have a close friend whose company builds the towers and infrastructure for the various carriers.
So where does that leave us? It means we should take the advertising with a grain of salt, be patient and eventually we will have the faster speed.
I hope this info has helped you.
Cheers