Opensignal’s latest independent report on US mobile network performance confirms T-Mobile’s continued lead in 5G while AT&T trails behind.
T-Mobile topped the 5G download speed category with an average of 118.7 Mbps — more than double the speeds recorded by Verizon (56 Mbps) and AT&T (51.5 Mbps).
This marks T-Mobile’s fourth consecutive win for 5G download speed. The carrier increased its advantage from a 35.2 Mbps lead in Opensignal’s previous report to a 62.7 Mbps lead in the most recent assessment.
Opensignal noted that T-Mobile’s deployment of mid-band 5G has driven much of this performance advantage, giving the operator a substantial head start in download speeds.
The report also highlighted that AT&T and Verizon will begin receiving C-band spectrum (3.7–3.98 GHz) allocations, starting in December 2021, and have plans to deploy their own mid-band 5G networks — following the path T-Mobile began with its 2.5 GHz deployment.
T-Mobile also led in 5G upload speeds, though by a narrower margin. The operator recorded 16.1 Mbps upload, compared with Verizon’s 14.4 Mbps and AT&T’s 9.7 Mbps.
High speeds matter only if users can access them, and here too T-Mobile performed best. Opensignal users spent 34.7% of their time connected to 5G on T-Mobile, versus 16.4% on AT&T and 9.7% on Verizon.
Neville Ray, President of Technology at T-Mobile, commented:
“Virtually every network report from third-party experts this year shows the same thing: T-Mobile delivers unmatched 5G coverage and blazing 5G speeds that just keep getting faster. Today, we provide 5G speeds and coverage the carriers can’t match. And as we deploy even more Ultra Capacity 5G across the country, we’ll continue to pull even farther away from the pack on performance.”
Verizon picked up several awards as well, preventing a complete sweep by T-Mobile.
Verizon won the ‘5G Video Experience’ award with a score of 61.3, an honor it had previously shared with AT&T. T-Mobile finished second with 55.3 points, while AT&T placed third with 50.6 points.
On 5G gaming, Opensignal ranked Verizon as the top US network. Verizon scored 80.6 points, compared to AT&T’s 73 and T-Mobile’s 67.2. Verizon is now the only US carrier in the ‘Good’ category (75–85) for 5G gaming, after AT&T’s score dropped by 2.3 points since the last report.
Verizon also took the lead in the ’5G Voice App Experience’ category, though the results were close: Verizon scored 82.7 points, AT&T 81.3, and T-Mobile 79.8.
Summary of the awards and category winners follows the data above.
Overall, the report delivers a strong result for T-Mobile and a solid showing for Verizon, while AT&T faces a setback with a lost award and a decline in at least one category since the previous Opensignal report.
(Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash)
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