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.

Face(off)Time: How does the iPhone 4 compare to its 2 closest Android challengers?

Right now, it looks like the Evo 4G poses the biggest challenge to the new iPhone. It will be up to Apple app developers to come up with something truly innovative that takes advantage of the gyroscope to make it a must-have feature that would push someone over to the iPhone rather than the Evo 4G. Plus, while Sprint’s 4G network isn’t live in cities like New York or San Francisco yet, AT&T’s service in those markets doesn’t often get rave reviews.

The Droid Incredible, while making use of Verizon’s popular network, comes in 3rd for the lack of the additional front facing camera and video capabilities of the iPhone 4 or Evo 4G. Though if there is any truth to the Verizon iPhone rumors (those who believe that it will happen aren’t expecting it until fall at the earliest), the Droid Incredible could be a good way to get a better upgrade deal on the iPhone if Apple does make the move to expand carriers.

And even if it doesn’t happen, we suspect it won’t be too long before there’s a new version that’s more exactly in line with the specs of the iPhone or Evo 4G.

While the increased screen resolution of the iPhone may be good for people who want to take advantage of all the content coming for the iPad, we can’t help but wonder if someone whose primary purpose is to use the device as an e-reader wouldn’t just go for the larger iPad instead of the new phone.

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.