Sprint and AT&T both unveiled new 4G coverage zones today. The realm of 4G wireless networking continues to grow with each passing week, and for business users it has matured from a luxury to a necessity.

Sprint finally introduced 4G/LTE coverage in New York (or at least part of NY)—obviously a major wireless market. Meanwhile, AT&T added 4G coverage in eight new regions, bringing AT&T 4G service to a total of 336 markets across the United States.

It wasn’t that long ago that wireless providers first started rolling out the next-generation 4G networks. In just a couple of years, though, 4G/LTE networks have become the standard—at least in larger metropolitan areas—and for business users trying to get things done from mobile devices, 4G makes all the difference.

PCWorld conducted an extensive nationwide survey of wireless service last year. Verizon and Sprint yielded sad results on their CDMA-based 3G networks, with average download speeds of about 1Mbps for Verizon, and about half that for Sprint. AT&T and T-Mobile did much better thanks to their HSPA+ 3G networks service, which T-Mobile actually marketed as 4G even though it’s not.

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