According to PCMag’s annual mobile network comparison released today, T-Mobile is the “best” carrier in the US for connection speed and reliability.
PCMag drove more than 10,000 miles in 30 cities to test connection speeds for AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. In the past, this research has focused on the fastest connections, but this year, PCMag will be looking for the best overall web experience. T-Mobile had the best experience in 18 of the 30 cities, while Verizon had the best experience in 8 cities and AT&T had the best experience in 4 cities.
In terms of speed alone, T-Mobile was the fastest in 19 cities, Verizon was the fastest in nine cities, and AT&T was the fastest in two cities, with Verizon hitting the top download speed at 3891Mb/s. T-Mobile had the highest average download speed of all tests at 264.4Mb/s, beating Verizon’s average of 156.8Mb/s and AT&T’s average of 79Mb/s. T-Mobile also surpassed Verizon and AT&T in average upload speeds.
Also, T-Mobile has improved its service in rural areas, and has the best 5G coverage thanks to its acquisition of Sprint and its takeover of mid-band spectrum, but AT&T and Verizon may catch up at some point in the future.
IT House learned that PCMag also tested 5G speeds, and on T-Mobile and Verizon, the gap between 4G speeds and 5G speeds is getting wider. Verizon and T-Mobile have “substantially increased speeds nationwide” due to the expansion of their mid-band 5G network, but AT&T’s speeds have dropped.
All tests were done with a Samsung Galaxy S22+, which has “Best Network Performance” in PCMag’s tests. In the final score, speed accounts for 60% of the total score and reliability accounts for 40%. Call success, data success, download speed, upload speed and latency are all taken into account.