Ookla’s latest findings are in and the takeaway is quite simple: T-Mobile has a very fast network. Nothing much has changed, as the same has been evident for quite some time. But thanks to continue investment, as well as new 5G innovations that have been getting deployed, plus the utilization of additional mid-band spectrum, T-Mobile’s speed lead continues to grow over the competition.
According to Ookla’s report, T-Mobile has been working to incorporate and test things like 5G Standalone (SA) architecture and six carrier aggregation, allowing the carrier to boost its median 5G download speeds to an impressive 287.14 Mbps as of March, 2024. That’s a 29.64 Mbps jump in just a month, as shown in Ookla’s figures. That number easily beats out Verizon’s median of 224.67 Mbps and AT&T’s 145.36 Mbps.
While the city slickers have been the ones mostly enjoying the benefits of all these speed improvements, both Verizon and T-Mobile have been putting in more work into bumping up its more rural 5G offerings too. According to the data, both carriers have seen added speeds thanks to recent mid-band spectrum deployments. The graph below highlights these improvements, with AT&T only seeing a slight bump in rural median download speeds.
Thanks to these improvements, the US is starting to actually show up pretty high on global rankings for service and availability, which is right where we want to be. Keep in mind, the continental US is a large area to cover. When looking at the below graph, remember that South Korea is a country of 38,000 square miles, while the US is roughly 4 million.
Your speed king remains to be T-Mobile.
// Ookla