AT&T is trouncing Verizon in LTE performance tests. Here’s AT&T’s explanation why

Although AT&T was a full year behind Verizon Wireless in deploying its LTE systems, it’s now routinely outscoring Verizon on multiple network speed and performance tests. Part of the explanation lies in congestion. Verizon’s network is hardly brimming over – it’s maintaining average speeds in excess of 10 Mbps – but it has more LTE devices on its network by virtue of having sold them for far longer. Cellular capacity is ultimately shared capacity so the more devices you have competing for airtime the slower everyone’s speeds will be. But this is quickly becoming less of a point of difference on their networks, considering smartphone replacement cycles are so short. Samsung and Apple just flooded both networks with millions of new Galaxy S 4s and iPhone 5s. AT&T Senior EVP of technology and network operations John Donovan has an alternate explanation: AT&T took its time to build a better network.