T-Mobile now ranked fastest 5G network by Ookla
The latest report from the speed test service is out.
- I've been covering technology and mobile for 12 years, first as a telecommunications reporter and assistant editor at ZDNet in Australia, then as CNET's West Coast head of breaking news, and now in the Thought Leadership team.
The biggest 5G network and the fastest speeds? Ookla ranks all three major carriers.
T-Mobile now has the fastest average 5G download speeds in the US, a report by speed test service Ookla said Thursday. The Ookla study also found that T-Mobile customers with 5G devices spent more time connected to a 5G network than those on rival carriers during the first three months of 2021.
According to the study, T-Mobile clocked in at 82.35Mbps download speeds on its 5G network for the first quarter of the year, followed by AT&T at 76.6Mbps and Verizon with 67.24Mbps.
Ookla's study of how much time 5G customers spent on their carrier's 5G network showed T-Mobile subscribers were connected 65% of the time, followed by Verizon customers at 36% and AT&T customers at 31%.
Read more: 5G: Everything you need to know
"T-Mobile delivers the fastest 5G speeds and a 5G signal more often," T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray said in a statement Thursday. "T-Mobile 5G will keep layering on even more capacity and speed to the nation's largest 5G network."
Similar recent reports by Opensignal and Umlaut also showed T-Mobile having the fastest 5G network, with the most availability. However, a report Wednesday by RootMetrics ranked AT&T the highest on 5G download speeds, as it was able to deliver speeds above 50Mbps in 31 cities compared to T-mobile's 11 cities and Verizon's 10. T-Mobile kept the top spot for 5G availability in the RootMetrics report.
AT&T and Verizon didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
The three major US carriers are using different radio waves for their 5G networks: Verizon uses high-band millimeter-wave 5G spectrum, which can travel only short distances and can be blocked by solid obstacles like buildings and trees. AT&T uses 850MHz spectrum for its low-band 5G network, which has better range but slower speeds.
T-Mobile uses low-band 600MHz spectrum and has also integrated Sprint's midband 2.5GHz spectrum for its "layer cake" approach to 5G since the carrier's $26.5 billion merger with Sprint went through a year ago. Midband spectrum is faster than low-band, and travels farther than high-band.
You can check out T-Mobile's 5G coverage maps here, AT&T's 5G maps here and Verizon's 5G coverage map here.
Read more: Best 5G phones for 2021