The new Opensignal 5G Experience Report awarded T-Mobile four categories (download speed, availability, reach and upload speed) and Verizon two (video experience and games experience).
T-Mobile’s wins:
- It won the download speed category for the fourth consecutive time with a speed of 118.7 Mbps, which more than doubled both Verizon (56 Mbps) and AT&T (51.5 Mbps).
- The mobile carrier won in the availability category. The carrier’s customers spent 34.7% of their time on 5G, compared with 16.4% for AT&T customers and 9.7% for Verizon’s.
- In reach, T-Mobile scored 7.2 out of 10 points. The scale represents the proportion of locations a user visits that has a 5G signal, Opensignal says.
- T-Mobile’s 5G upload speed was 16.1 Mbps. Verizon was second at 14.4 Mbps and AT&T third at 9.7 Mbps.
Opensignal says that its scores are based on billions of daily measurements from more than 100 million devices globally. The U.S.-only report was in the field from June 14 to September 11.
Verizon’s wins:
- Verizon won the 5G video experience category with 61.3 points (apparently on a 100-point scale). The carrier had tied with AT&T in July. The other carriers’ scores were not noted. The breaking of this tie was the only position change in the rankings.
- The mobile carrier also won the 5G games experience award with 80.6 points. AT&T followed with 73 points and T-Mobile with 67.2 points. Verizon is the only U.S. carrier in the “good” category, which is between 75 and 85 points.
Commentary in the report says that carriers have expanded their low-band 5G coverage. This year, the three major carries increased their low-band customer base by a combined 785 million people. Opensignal noted, however, that “the largest and most notable improvement that we have observed in this 5G report compared to the previous one was driven by the expansion of mid-band 5G.”
In September, Opensignal reported that 5G smartphone users in New Jersey had the best 5G availability, download speed and games experience, while those in Illinois and Texas tied for best 5G availability.
