A new set of incredibly detailed reports analyzing the performance of the three major US mobile network operators across the nation has been published by RootMetrics, and instead of one big winner, two carriers can actually claim victory in two equally important fields today.
Believe it or not, the only "big three" industry player that doesn't take home any truly major trophies this time around is Verizon, which somehow continues to lead the market in terms of both subscriber numbers and wireless revenue. Of course, that may well change before long given T-Mobile's immense recent progress in several key departments related to customer and financial figures, especially if the "Un-Carrier" can also keep improving the greatest 5G network stateside.
Three 5G battles, one clear champion
Yes, Verizon was once again found to offer the most reliable overall 5G experience in the most major US markets based on almost 2.3 million tests conducted during the second half of 2023. That's the same situation as in the first half of last year, but Big Red's win count in that category is down from 112 to 108 while AT&T and T-Mobile are both up from 63 and 25 to 99 and 34 victories respectively.
That's already a pretty worrying stat for the nation's largest wireless service provider, but things only get worse for Verizon when looking at the 5G availability and 5G speed sections of the latest RootMetrics study.
These are T-Mobile's playgrounds, and the gap between the leader and its rivals in the two key categories makes the 5G competition look like... not much of a competition right now. Magenta incredibly delivers the best 5G availability in a whopping 109 out of 125 major metropolitan markets, boosting its already outstanding tally of 98 individual victories from H1 2023.
T-Mobile also keeps Verizon and AT&T at arm's length in the 5G download speed department with 69 trophies, although that number is actually way down from 85 gold ribbons secured during the first six months of last year. Both Verizon and AT&T have clearly managed to vastly improve their 5G speeds in many areas with the help of recently acquired and deployed C-Band spectrum, but the silver and bronze medalists will need a lot more progress in the future to even hope to end up playing in the same league as T-Mobile... at some point.
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It's not clear if that's even physically, logistically, and technologically possible, so in the short and mid term, T-Mo simply looks untouchable as far as 5G speeds, 5G availability, and the sweet-spot combination between the two are concerned.
And the overall winner is...
Not T-Mobile. Surprised to hear that? You might be even more surprised to see AT&T top the "US State of the Mobile Union" charts for H2 2023... if you're not familiar with any past RootMetrics reports. This analytics company crowned the same champion for H1 2023 (and 2022, and 2021), once again giving it the reliability, speed, data, and call trophies outright when considering all available cellular technologies rather than just 5G connectivity.
Ma Bell also tied Verizon for first place in the text category, while Verizon tied T-Mobile for the network accessibility crown. Somewhat surprisingly, AT&T and Verizon were statistically tied for the overall mobile performance title, but it's hard not to see Ma Bell as the one true winner here.
That also makes T-Mobile the one true nationwide loser, once again highlighting how much room for progress there is for Magenta's "outdated" but still very important 4G LTE network. After all, 5G is unlikely to hit true ubiquity anytime soon.
Magenta has a lot to worry about when it comes to its overall metro area performance as well, with Verizon actually in the lead there thanks to a towering combination of an unrivaled 4G foundation and a fast-improving 5G layer on top of that. At the state level, AT&T managed to edge out Verizon with 249 to 229 awards while T-Mobile only won 76 trophies, which is certainly not a great number however you look at it.
But T-Mo can at least be happy with once again producing the greatest US median download speed score... by a landslide. But even in that category, it's hard to ignore Verizon and AT&T's solid progress from 77.9 and 77.3 Mbps to 111.9 and 108.9 Mbps respectively. Of course, both those figures remain far behind Magenta's 250 Mbps speed average, which is itself up from 213.2 Mbps in H1 2023.
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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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