Who Has The Best 5G Network? T-Mobile Is Winning By A Long Shot

The race to 5G is one that carriers have been focused on for a while now, and here in October 2021, T-Mobile is reportedly standing strong as the current leader in said race. For the past couple of years, 5G seems to be the only thing carriers and smartphone manufacturers want to talk about. Carriers are regularly expanding their 5G networks to cover more places, there are more 5G phones available than ever before, and it’s a strategy that doesn’t seem to be ending any time soon (that is, until 6G becomes a thing).

As with any new technology, 5G is far from perfect. The budding wireless service was only available in small pockets across the country not too long ago. While it’s in a much better place today, there’s still work to be done. A study from April provided a general overview of 5G in the United States. The conclusion? All three carriers have been making progress, but there still wasn’t a clear winner. Fast forward to October 2021, and an updated report shows just how much things have changed.

Four times a year, OpenSignal releases a quarterly report/analysis of wireless networks in the United States. While each carrier will happily tout itself as being the best, OpenSignal uses these reports to provide an independent look at how the industry is really progressing. The organization just released its 5G Experience Report for October 2021, and the results are a bit shocking. The main takeaway is that T-Mobile’s 5G download speeds are over 2x faster than those of Verizon and AT&T. OpenSignal reports an average 118.7Mbps 5G download speed for T-Mobile, compared to 56Mbps on Verizon and 51.5Mbps on AT&T.

Other Findings From OpenSignal’s 5G Experience Report

In addition to better download speed, T-Mobile also has the upper hand for upload speed. T-Mobile averaged a 16.1Mbps upload speed this time around, Verizon got second place with 14.4Mbps, and AT&T clocked in at 9.7Mbps. Those are all improvements compared to last quarter’s report, but T-Mobile clearly still has the edge here. Furthermore, OpenSignal found that T-Mobile 5G has better availability and reach than its competition. On the availability side of things, T-Mobile users spent 34.7 percent of their time with an active 5G signal. That may not sound very impressive on paper, but it’s leaps and bounds better than AT&T and Verizon — reporting 16.4 and 9.7 percent 5G availability, respectively. As for 5G reach (which OpenSignal describes as “the proportion of locations a 5G user visits that have a 5G signal“), the results were as follows: T-Mobile scored 7.2 out of 10, AT&T got 4.9, and Verizon came in last with 3.4.

T-Mobile may be the overall leader right now, but that’s not to say it’s perfect. In regards to the 5G Video Experience, Game Experience, and Voice App Experience, OpenSignal hails Verizon as the ‘sole’ winner for all three of these. In other words, streaming video, playing online games, and using apps like Skype and WhatsApp tends to all perform better on Verizon’s network.

The full report goes into much greater detail about everything, but the general consensus is that T-Mobile has a pretty decent lead right now. It has the best availability, reach, and download/upload speeds. This is a generalization and not entirely accurate of every individual’s experience, but it’s obvious that T-Mobile’s strategy is working — and working quite well. It’s also important to remember that the 5G race is far from over. T-Mobile may be the winner this time around, but that’s not to say someone else won’t take the lead next quarter.

Source: OpenSignal

About The Author

Joe Maring
(1516 Articles Published)

Joe has been actively writing and talking about consumer tech since 2012. His biggest passion lies with smartphones, but he’s happy to talk your ear off about just about anything with a CPU. He lives in Kalamazoo, MI with his wife, two cats, and pit bull/boxer mix.

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