Opensignal has released some findings from tests performed using mid-band services from AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. This is their first major report since AT&T and Verizon launched their first C-band service back in January.
Prior to C-Band coming out, T-Mobile was and still is using its 2.5GHz nationwide 5G network. This was from the spectrum they obtained via the Sprint merger.
Now that the carriers are on more level playing fields, Opensignal determined it was time to put them all to the test. The Opensignal team has measured the impact of each carrier’s C-Band rollout on their nationwide performance within its new Quantifying the impact of C-band on 5G mobile experience in the U.S.
Results show that Verizon Wireless customers came out on top with the initial C-Band rollout. Thanks to the C-band coverage, the carrier’s average nationwide 5G download speed increased by 15Mbps. This spiked from 55.7Mbps shortly before the launch to 70.6Mbps following it. That’s a boost of more than 26% in download rates. Upload speeds on the other hand showed no clear change. Sadly, for AT&T customers, the results before and after the C-band launch were not much different on download or upload speeds.
Opensignal noted that these differences with AT&T and Verizon weren’t exactly surprising. You simply need to compare the rate at which the carriers rolled out service and the number of users they were capable of reaching in this short amount of time. Verizon was able to reach more customers in their rollout than AT&T.
Next, Opensignal measured the head-to-head performance of each carrier’s respective mid-band 5G offering. As you’ll see below, T-Mobile won with the highest download rate. They however lost on the upload rate to Verizon, which came in a close second on download speed.
In their report, Opensignal stressed that, even when limiting its measurements to mid-band connections only, there’s more at work here than raw speed. The company says the other biggest factor is available spectrum ranges and their impact on network capacity. The more spectrum that’s available, the more users can connect before everyone’s download, and upload speeds begin to decline from congestion. It’s helpful to note that both AT&T entered the mid-band 5G game with 40MHz of available spectrum, while Verizon owns 60MHz. Comparatively, T-Mobile is believed to have deployed between 60MHz and 80MHz, with as much as 100MHz available for eventual deployment.
The last item Opensignal looked at were the mid-band download rates of Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile in five major cities: Chicago, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Phoenix. AT&T was purposely left out since their mid-band was only available in Chicago. T-Mobile’s extensive network came out the winner here. It was only a close call when it came to results from Los Angeles.
In conclusion, Opensignal reminded readers that it is still very early days for competitive mid-band 5G in the U.S. However, it already detected average download rates on mid-band 5G that are “much faster — three to four times when connected to mid-band 5G on AT&T and Verizon compared to the average 5G download speeds our users experienced on the two carriers before they activated their C-band networks.”
Thanks to the lead T-Mobile has over the other carriers, they’re likely to stay on top. Although, as Opensignal put it, “data shows that Verizon and soon AT&T now have the required mid-band spectrum to start the chase.”