Looking for the Fastest Mobile Connection? This Carrier Tops Them All

pcmag.com:

Your wireless carrier's internet speeds can make or break your experience with your mobile device. And while AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile all claim to have the best speeds, Ookla's Q3 2023 Speedtest Global Index study finds that one carrier clearly reigns supreme.

Across nearly every dimension in the test, T-Mobile comes out on top—just like last quarter. In terms of median download speeds, T-Mobile's was at 163.59Mbps in Q3. That's slightly down from 164.76 in Q2 2023 and 165.22 in Q1, but still almost twice as fast as Verizon and AT&T.

T-Mobile also had the fastest median upload speed in the US, at 11.31Mbps. Again, that's slightly down from Q2's speed of 12.16Mbps, but still well above the competition.

In terms of multi-server latency, T-Mobile came out on top with the lowest median score of 53 milliseconds, followed by Verizon (59ms), and AT&T (66ms).

It's the same story for the consistency of each carrier's performance. "We found that T-Mobile had the highest consistency in the US during Q3 2023, with 85.2% of results showing at least 5Mbps download and 1Mbps upload speeds," the study says. "Verizon Wireless and AT&T followed at 80.8% and 78.4%, respectively."

If you frequently watch videos on your phone, T-Mobile also ranks highly for that. Ookla gave each carrier a "video score," measuring their mobile playback performance. T-Mobile scored the highest (74.82), followed by Verizon (71.59), and finally AT&T (69.54). The ranking was the same for videos played over a 5G connection specifically.

The carrier also came out on top in PCMag's Best Mobile Networks testing last year, and was our Readers' Choice pick this year for carriers in North America.

So, let's say you're on a T-Mobile plan, and you want to optimize