Each of the three major mobile carriers leads at least one category of Opensignal’s January 2026 Mobile Network Experience Report.
Opensignal’s research found that T-Mobile led all carriers for reliability, experience, consistent quality, and access to 5G. Consistent quality is defined as how well a network supports the requirements for common applications that users consider acceptable to complete various “demanding” tasks, though Opensignal doesn’t define what “demanding” is in this context.
Reliability, on the other hand, refers to the ability of users to connect to and complete everyday tasks. Opensignal revised its 5G availability metric, so it is now based on whether a user has access to a 5G network, regardless of whether that connection is being used.
Verizon topped its mobile competitors in the video portion of the report, winning top honors for 5G video experience and 5G live video experience. The scores just missed the top quartile, with Verizon earning marks of 71.4 (out of 100) for streaming video of 1080p resolution with “satisfactory” loading times in the 5G video experience category, and 73.4 for 5G Live Video Experience.
For reliability, the report recognized AT&T for best overall time on a mobile network. It was the second straight report that AT&T topped this category. According to Opensignal, AT&T users almost always (99.6% of the time) had access to a 3G or better connection, just above the performance for Verizon (99.5%) users.
In its report, Opensignal notes that the experience metrics of reliability and accessibility could be improving for all mobile users as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) auctions off AWS-3 band spectrum this year. The regulator is also planning to release additional upper C-band spectrum for U.S. operators, with bidding targeted for completion by mid-2027.
On the other hand, although all three carriers reported increasing the number of fixed wireless users — according to a separate Ookla report recently — they also had declines in upload and download speeds.
