OpenSignal has released its “Mobile Network Experience Report” for the past three months. And it found that T-Mobile was still the fastest 4G LTE network in the nation, with AT&T and Verizon not far behind. No surprise, Sprint is still pretty far behind.
Sprint didn’t win a single award in this report, though AT&T’s only award was a tie with T-Mobile, so that doesn’t mean much for Sprint. Verizon won outright in 4G LTE availability and Video Experience. T-Mobile won outright in Download Speed Experience and Upload Speed Experience while it tied with AT&T for Latency Experience.
When it comes to 4G availability, Verizon won, but T-Mobile was close behind. Verizon had a score of 94.8 and T-Mobile had a score of 94.2 out of 100. AT&T and Sprint were both pretty far behind with 89.6 and 89.5 respectively. Download speeds were also very close, T-Mobile had an average of 23.6Mbps while Verizon and AT&T were pretty close at 22.9 and 22.5 Mbps respectively.
Where things get a bit interesting, is in the world of video experience. AT&T, a company that has invested heavily in content with the purchase of Time Warner and forming WarnerMedia, is still doing pretty poorly in this test. Verizon won out, with a score of 56.1, T-Mobile was second with a score of 51.7 and surprisingly in third place was Sprint at 47.5. AT&T did so poorly, it’s in last place with a score of 46.3. But these are still pretty low numbers, considering it’s out of 100 possible points.
On a regional level, Verizon is still dominating all of these categories in the top 71 markets cross the US. With 4G Availability, it won in every single market, with only a couple having a four-way tie. While Verizon doesn’t have the fastest network, it does have a very powerful 4G LTE network across the US, which is something that Verizon has been touting for a few years now.
What this report shows is that 4G LTE investments are still paying off for these carriers, even while they are investing heavily in 5G – the next-generation of wireless. AT&T’s investment in its 4G network is really starting to pay off for it in some metro areas, like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Where it had the third and fourth fastest individual Download Speed Experience results, coming in with 39.8 and 37.9Mbps respectively.
Verizon and T-Mobile still sit at the top though. Verizon got the fastest measurement in an unlikely city, New York City. Which was 42.4 Mbps. For a city like New York City, that’s rather impressive. Given the sheer amount of people in that city and how overcrowded the towers likely are. T-Mobile was second place in Grand Rapids with a speed of 40.2Mbps.
These reports are always great to read through, but it’s important to remember that these speeds are speeds you likely won’t see much at all. It all depends on how many people were on the network at the same time as OpenSignal when they started the test, also whether any upgrades had happened yet and many other variables. You can check out the full report from OpenSignal here.