RootMetrics has posted its findings for the second half of 2023. To give you a TL;DR version, the ultimate takeaway is that each of the big three carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon) did very well in their respective categories. T-Mobile crushed in the speed tests, Verizon scored high in reliability, and AT&T won many awards in network performance testing. Basically, we can say these days that there are no bad carriers of the big three.
Diving deeper into the results, median download speeds are T-Mobile’s bread and butter. RootMetrics has T-Mobile listed at a median of 250Mbps, blowing away Verizon at 112Mbps and AT&T at 109Mbps. These numbers are based on national testing, so while I’m personally not pulling 250Mbps in my town, I know some other T-Mobile customer is out there living the good life with ultra high speeds. You lucky duck.
State-wide performance is where AT&T does very well, winning hundreds of RootMetrics awards. In total, AT&T pulled in 249 awards compared to Verizon’s 229 and T-Mobile’s lowly 76. Interestingly, within the performance category, AT&T scores terribly in Network Accessibility. The carrier got a single award, where Verizon got 40 and T-Mobile got 32. If AT&T can clean up that category, RootMetrics indicates they could be scoring much higher.
Verizon has long been the king of reliability and the second half of 2023 hasn’t changed a thing. The carrier won its sixth straight prize for testing with the top 5G reliability of any carrier. On top of that, Verizon upped its 5G median download speeds in 112 out of 125 metro areas, while also increasing 5G availability in 84 markets. This is thanks to Verizon’s continued rollout of C-Band spectrum.
The report contains many insights and we always recommend you check it out, especially if you’ve been shopping for a new carrier. Follow the link below to read more.
// RootMetrics