In Speed Showdown, T-Mobile Leads the Pack, and Not Just in 5G
T-Mobile's network once again outpaces those of AT&T and Verizon Wireless both in 5G and overall, according to the latest speed-testing data from Ookla.
Ookla (which is owned by PCMag’s parent firm Ziff Davis) posted its first-quarter report(Opens in a new window) Monday based on results gathered by its Speedtest app(Opens in a new window)–one of the most widely used bandwidth-benchmarking tools. The data show T-Mobile ahead of its two principal rivals on multiple levels:
T-Mobile easily delivered the fastest median download speeds, at 165.22Mbps compared Verizon’s 75.4Mbps and AT&T’s 68.2Mbps.
Its median downloads were even faster when measured only over 5G: 220.7Mbps, with Verizon back at 132.72Mbps and AT&T at 86.46Mbps.
T-Mobile had a narrower edge in median uploads: 12.99Mbps, versus 9.87Mbps at Verizon and 8.14Mbps at AT&T.
T-Mobile also provided 5G service more often than its competitors, with an availability figure of 71.1% that edged out AT&T’s 68.7% and Verizon’s relatively woeful 37.6%.
Ookla did, however, find smaller differences between the three nationwide carriers in their consistency: Over 4G and 5G, T-Mobile delivered at least 5Mbps down and 1Mbps up 87.3% of the time, followed by Verizon at 83.5% and AT&T at 81.6%. On 5G, with a minimum of 25Mbps down and 3Mbps up, T-Mobile squeaked ahead of Verizon by what Ookla calls a statistically insignificant 77.4% over 76.6%, followed by AT&T 68.6%.
The same went for video scores, a metric Ookla added in 2021: T-Mobile scored 74.25 across 4G and 5G, Verizon 72.28, and AT&T 68.02. In 5G only, Verizon and T-Mobile tied at 77.97, followed by AT&T at 70.44.
Ookla found the least daylight between the carriers in latency: 55ms at T-Mobile, 57ms at Verizon, and 60ms at
Read more on pcmag.com
