As of yesterday, Ookla released their latest data on 5G speeds for the third quarter of 2023. Results are showing the difference between 5G and fixed broadband download speeds in the U.S. is getting closer.
Scoring a Median Download Speed of 221.57 Mbps, T-Mobile led the race. That’s compared to Verizon’s 153.79 Mbps median download speed, and AT&T’s 101.55 Mbps. With the exception of the latency scores, which AT&T led, T-Mobile was the winner in every category. However, each carrier saw increases in most categories. Other measurements compared were of Median Download and Upload Speeds, Median Multi-Server Latency, Consistency, and Video Score, as well as the same categories specific to 5G networks.
In addition to reviewing speed test results, Ookla looked at device information. More specifically, the most popular devices at this time. This includes the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max models, the Galaxy S23 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold4 and the Pixel 7 Pro. Overall, the Apple iPhones won with the highest speeds, but lost to the Galaxy devices in terms of latency.
Lastly, state and city speeds were recorded and compared. Illinois took first place at the state level with the fastest median mobile download speed of 110.08 Mbps. T-Mobile was the fastest provider in 44 states and the District of Columbia during Q3 2023. Verizon was the fastest in North Dakota. As for South Dakota, Montana, Vermont, Maine, and Alaska – the results were too close to call. Among the 100 most populous cities in the U.S. Glendale, Arizona displayed the fastest median download speeds. T-Mobile was the fastest operator in 77 of these cities. Verizon Wireless was the fastest provider in El Paso, Texas, and AT&T was fastest in Las Vegas, Nevada. Results were statistically too close to call in 21 cities.
Ookla is using their Speedtest Intelligence service to find the overall Fastest Provider in terms of their Download Speeds. This service offers “up-to-date insights into global fixed broadband and mobile performance data based on millions of consumer-initiated tests taken every day with Speedtest®.” To see exactly what is being tested, checkout how Ookla collects data.
As 5G is constantly evolving, OpenSignal has released another report regarding the 5G experience across the United States. Per their report, “In this insight we quantify how the 5G experience has changed across the U.S. in the six months since our previous analysis. This benchmark will act as a reference point to evaluate the future impact of AT&T and Verizon’s C-band deployments on the national 5G mobile experience as it records the state of the 5G experience on the eve of the arrival of C-band.”
The evaluations were done during a 90-day period, which started on November 1, 2021 and ended on January 29, 2022. This was done across all 50 U.S. states and 300 cities. Among them, Illinois came out on top for download speeds. They had an overall average of 141.4 Mbps, which was just ahead of New York at 138.6 Mbps. In fact, 23 of the states saw averages over 100 Mbps. There were however a few that were under 60 Mbps. Take a look at the results below.
With regards to improvement comparison since the last report, 44 states saw an increase of around 27 Mbps for the average download speed. There were 6 states that saw “no statistical change.”
OpenSignal also looked at the “5G Reach” and how it has improved in each state. The average improvement across the 47 U.S. states that saw their 5G Reach score increase was 17.1% (0.6 points). In this evaluation, all states saw improvement except for Hawaii, North Dakota, and Vermont.
Next, they looked at “5G Availability.” This was increased in only 21 states. “5G Availability represents the proportion of time that 5G users saw an active 5G connection on their smartphone,” states the report.
OpenSignal also reports about the changes that have been made over the course of the past six months that have changed the 5G mobile experience. They see promising signs that U.S. carriers are either planning to or are currently addressing problems surrounding coverage and performance in small rural states.
“For example, our 5G users in West Virginia and New Hampshire saw improvements across all three metrics analyzed — 5G Download Speed, 5G Availability and 5G Reach — meaning that they could access 5G networks in more locations, spend more time with an active 5G connection and also enjoy faster 5G download speeds than before,” says the report. “However, our 5G users in Vermont and North Dakota were the only ones out of the 50 states whose 5G mobile experience hasn’t changed statistically across any of the three measures analyzed, suggesting that 5G improvements are happening at a staggered pace across different locations.”
Lastly, 5G was reviewed across 300 U.S. cities. Specifically, they looked at Availability and Download Speeds. Check out the results below.
Just like 6 months ago, six of the top 10 cities for 5G Availability belonged to Texas. Four of them – McAllen, Brownsville, San Antonio and Waco – also appeared in the previous top 10, while El Paso and Austin made it into the cut this time, replacing Houston and Corpus Christi. The remaining four cities in the top 10 were Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles — all of which were also shortlisted last time — as well as Trenton, New Jersey.
The average 5G download speed passed the 100 Mbps mark in 105 cities, up from 12 last time. Among these cities we found Washington (140.8 Mbps), San Antonio (136.2 Mbps), Los Angeles (134.4 Mbps), Seattle (131.6 Mbps), Phoenix (121.2 Mbps), Dallas (118.9 Mbps), San Diego (118.3 Mbps) and Indianapolis (113.8 Mbps).
OpenSignal is known for its mobile analytics. Each year they release a few reports about the major cellular carriers’ networks. They take results gathered from millions of devices, which result in billions of measurements. The latest data gathered, which was collected between September and December of last year, shows T-Mobile is on top once again.
Analysis was done in 43 states, as well as the capital of Washington, D.C., for each of the carriers strictly on their 5G network experience. The report covered: Availability, Reach, Games Experience, Voice App Experience, Download Speed and Upload Speed.
T-Mobile was not the only winner though. Verizon also picked up the categories of Games Experience and Voice App Experience. Sadly, for AT&T, they didn’t win any categories, but still presented good results in comparison to its competitors. It’s no wonder given that T-Mobile has not had to deal with the issues surrounding C-Band that AT&T and Verizon have. This service was originally delayed, then limited to certain locations – all because of possible interference with aircraft tools that also work around the C-Band spectrum.
While Verizon has the best user experience, T-Mobile dominates the speed categories. In fact, they’ve been at the top of the Download Speed category for six times in a row and Upload Speeds for the fifth time in a row.
T-Mobile also won the Availability and Reach categories. It’s clear their lead on getting mid-band service out to 200 million users was a success. This is what they have dubbed their “Ultra Capacity 5G” service. It relies on the 2.5 Ghz band, so it is unaffected by the FAA concerns that have affected the C-Band.
Now let’s take a closer look at how all the carriers fared in each category, at the National Analysis level.
Note that each of the OpenSignal charts listed below have brackets at the end of their respective graphs. These brackets represent confidence intervals. Per OpenSignal, “For every metric we calculate statistical confidence intervals indicated on our graphs. When confidence intervals overlap, our measured results are too close to declare a winner. In those cases, we show a statistical draw. For this reason, some metrics have multiple operator winners. In our bar graphs we represent confidence intervals as boundaries on either sides of graph bars. In our supporting-metric charts we show confidence intervals as +/- numerical values.”
5G Availability
“Opensignal’s 5G Availability compares the amount of time 5G users spent with an active 5G connection — the higher the percentage, the more time that users on a network were actually connected to 5G.”
The brackets |-| represent confidence intervals.
5G Reach
“5G Reach represents the proportion of locations where 5G users have connected to 5G out of all the locations those users have visited, on a scale of 0-10. This measure complements our existing 5G Availability metric, which represents the proportion of time 5G users spent connected to 5G.”
The brackets |-| represent confidence intervals.
5G Games Experience
“Opensignal’s 5G Games Experience measures how mobile users experience real-time multiplayer mobile gaming on an operator’s 5G network. Measured on a scale of 0-100, it analyzes how the multiplayer mobile gaming experience is affected by mobile network conditions including latency, packet loss and jitter.”
The brackets |-| represent confidence intervals.
5G Voice App Experience
“Opensignal’s 5G Voice App Experience measures the quality of experience for over-the-top (OTT) voice services — mobile voice apps such as WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook Messenger etc. — when users are connected to a 5G network.”
The brackets |-| represent confidence intervals.
5G Download Speed
“T-Mobile’s 5G Download Speed continues on its upward trend as our users on the carrier now clock average speeds of 150 Mbps, up from 118.7 Mbps in the previous report. A year ago, using T-Mobile our users saw a 5G Download Speed score of 58.1 Mbps, but it has consistently increased since then due to T-Mobile’s ongoing deployment of 2.5 GHz spectrum. The carrier has been increasing both its population coverage, as well as the amount of spectrum deployed on that band.”
The brackets |-| represent confidence intervals.
5G Upload Speed
“T-Mobile keeps hold of the 5G Upload Speed award with a score of 17.9 Mbps, which is 1.8 Mbps faster than what our users observed in our October report. Verizon places second in 5G Upload Speed with a score of 14.1 Mbps, which represents a 0.3 Mbps decrease from our previous report, while AT&T’s score increased from 9.7 Mbps to 9.9 Mbps.”
The brackets |-| represent confidence intervals.
Analysis was also done at the regional level, which you’ll see outlined below.
