Yesterday at Bryant Park, Clear held a ceremonial cutting of a threaded ethernet cable to signal the launch of it’s New York City store and 4G coverage in the city. The coverage means that Sprint phones like the Evo 4G and the Epic 4G will now work in the city. The coverage bleeds over into New Jersey, extending as far as New Brunswick.

For those outside of New York City, Clear and Sprint have brought 4G to five other cities today. Those cities are: Hartford, CT; New Haven, CT; New Brunswick, NJ; Trenton, NJ; and Tampa, FL. It’s still a small step, but not an insignificant one. {BGR}

With the rollout comes greatly improved speeds, which Clear claims can go as high as 20 Mbps burst downloads, usually topping off at around 10 Mbps down. The speeds Clear was showing in Bryant Park were about 4.77 Mbps down, and .5 Mbps up, which is still better than you’re likely to find with a 3G connection.

Along with the news of the 4G network being lit up, a representative of Clear let slip that the company would be launching it’s own smartphones around mid-December. There’s no pricing or official announcements of the phones, but we were told to expect the Evo 4G and the Epic 4G phones. The phones already use Clear’s network for 4G on Sprint, so it will be interesting to see what a Clear-branded phone would be like.

They recently killed of the Sidekick, one of the earliest consumer-friendly smartphones. The Nexus One, Google’s attempt at selling a smartphone directly to consumers, had a backhand arrangement for special pricing on T-Mobile, but considering that it’s going forward purely as a developer phone speaks volumes about how well that arrangement worked out with consumers.

While details on the phone are scarce, T-Mobile may be betting on their network as much as hardware to entice mobile users to give them a chance.

“The T-Mobile G2 will deliver tight integration with Google services and break new ground as the first smartphone designed to run at 4G speeds on our new HSPA+ network.” {T-Mobile}

Currently, Sprint’s EVO 4G is the only phone capable of running at 4G speeds, but it’s important to keep in mind that 4G is still fairly limited in terms of geographic reach. AT&T and Verizon are making upgrades to their networks to debut 4G service. Given AT&T’s problems with reliable coverage with 3G and even standard service in certain locations, the G2 combined with a faster network could give T-Mobile an advantage for AT&T fans looking to escape their contracts. Verizon is the likely candidate for its own iPhone, but for those who travel internationally T-Mobile could be a better fallback. They also run a GSM network, like AT&T, so switching would just be a matter of unlocking the iPhone (something which should hopefully be easier since a recent ruling declaring jailbreaking legal). If they can beat AT&T to a stable, reliable 4G service, the G2 may just be the cherry on top of the information T-Mobile plans to release “in the coming weeks.”

After thousands of tests in 18 cities, the test came back with the almost surprising conclusion that AT&T is the fastest network out there right now. Considering the notoriously unreliable phone coverage of the network in places like New York and San Francisco, that might be the saving feature that convinces iPhone users to stick with AT&T if and when the rumored Verizon iPhone comes to fruition.  The iPhone carrier came out as the fastest in all areas of the US aside from the Northeast.  It is worth noting that technically, Sprint’s 4G network was the fastest that was tested, but it was only available in 9 out of 18 cities tested so it wasn’t counted. {PC Mag}

In the Northeast, T-Mobile was declared the fastest thanks to it’s improved network that it rolled out in New York City recently.  It also had a network on par with AT&T’s in Boston, Baltimore and Washington, DC.  Sprint’s 4G network was only available in a few markets, but had an average download speed of 2.1 Mbps, as opposed to AT&T’s national average of 1.79 Mbps.

Of course, with T-Mobile rolling out it’s faster network in more cities, and Sprint continually rolling out it’s 4G network, these numbers are subject to change over time.  AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile are all looking at 4G rollouts starting in 2011 at the earliest.

The Sprint and Verizon networks have been known to be generally more reliable, if not as fast and unable to do voice and data at the same time.

Keep in mind that speed doesn’t always mean reliability, and that good data speeds don’t mean great calling quality or service.