After months of driving around the country to test wireless networks, PCMag has named AT&T the Fastest Mobile Network in the United States. Last year, AT&T put up some solid numbers, but it just wasn’t available in enough cities to pull ahead of Verizon. Verizon rolled out LTE faster than any other carrier, but this year’s results are clear: AT&T has caught up.

You will no doubt want to read the full story, but PCMag’s Sascha Segan sums up the results like this:

Overall, we found AT&T’s LTE network to be the fastest of the group, but Verizon Wireless typically triumphed on our reliability gauges. T-Mobile’s new LTE network looked great in the few cities where we could find it, and it has the best backup in T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network. Sprint, just like in 2012, didn’t win any cities, but it’s on an upward trend by switching from obsolete WiMAX to a fresh LTE system.

As a Sprint customer who was promised 4G in NYC by the end of 2012 (I’m still waiting), this is small comfort. But my poor network choices aside, this is great news for the wireless industry and consumers. There are now two legitimate nationwide 4G providers in the United States. And if you live in a city where T-Mobile’s upstart 4G service is available, that is a good option as well. Sprint’s unfortunate detour into WiMax is hurting it—and me—but by next year’s test it may have a competitive 4G network as well.

The nation’s wireless carriers wield enormous power—over handset manufacturers, over software developers, and over consumers’ lives. There must be competition in the market to protect consumers from second-rate services and price gouging. That’s why I, and many others, opposed AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile. If Sprint and T-Mobile can raise their game, by this time next year we may have four 4G networks from which to choose. Coincidently, that is about when my Sprint contract is up.

Of course, the fastest network nationwide is probably less important than the fastest network where you live. We did in-depth tests in 30 American cities and on the highways and backroads in between. If your city is on our list, we have incredibly detailed test information and more than a few photos taken by our testers while they were on the road. If your city isn’t covered, you will want to look at our rural scores, which showed that Verizon LTE offers the best speeds when we were outside the city limits.

Want to find out how fast your personal connection is? You can download the same app we used for this story from our technology partner, Sensorly(Opens in a new window). Sorry iPhone users, it’s Android-only.