Wesley Hilliard
An industry report shows T-Mobile is the top mobile carrier in 5G download speed and widespread availability across the US.
Apple's iPhone 12 lineup is capable of 5G speeds, which has been a big selling point for the devices. The high-bandwidth wireless technology allows for near gigabit internet speeds when ideal conditions are met.
According to an Opensignal study, shared by 9to5Mac, T-Mobile has been leading other carriers in terms of download speed and availability across the US. However, the superior mmWave 5G technology is rarely used by T-Mobile customers.
The study revealed that while T-Mobile had a higher percentage of customers connected to 5G with faster speeds when connected, other services may provide superior experiences. The voice, video, and gaming experiences were deemed better on Verizon and AT&T than T-Mobile, despite the bandwidth and availability of T-Mobile 5G.
The download speed of T-Mobile reached 87.5 Mbps, up from 71.3 Mbps in the April report. These speeds are expected when using the more-widely-spread sub-6GHz 5G service, while mmWave 5G will enable connections closer to gigabit speeds in ideal situations.
The mmWave 5G speed test showed T-Mobile averaged 312 Mbps while Verizon nearly doubled this at 618.4 Mbps. Availability of mmWave 5G is highly dependent on event locations like sports stadiums or convention centers.
Due to this availability limitation, only about 0.2% of T-Mobile users connected to mmWave 5G during the quarter. Therefore, the sub-6GHz 5G availability and speed will be more impactful to the average user — which are T-Mobile's strengths.
T-Mobile merged with Sprint in an attempt to compete with Verizon and AT&T. So far, the effort seems to be working as it continues to expand availability and download speed at a faster rate than its rivals.
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13 Comments
This seems like one of those surveys designed so that every child at the party gets a present.
Crap coverage? No problem, but if you do manage to get some 5G, how's the "experience"?
BTW, T-Mobile got a whole bunch of spectrum from their merger with Sprint. This much improved their previously lackluster coverage (not just 5G). Now Vz and AT&T will have to pony up at the next spectrum auction.
The conclusions about "better experience" make ZERO sense. T-Mobile has SEVENTY PERCENT better download speeds vs Verizon/ATT, plus the best upload speeds, too, AND the widest 5G availability... but somehow the companies with radically slower speeds and more limited 5G availability deliver a "better experience" -- whatever THAT means -- for audio, video and gaming?! We all realize that's a baseless, stupid conclusion, right? And, listen: I have Verizon service in NYC, so I'm no T-Mobile fanboy, but you have to call out ridiculous when you see it. As for the mythical mmWave flavor of 5G, I'll probably spot a unicorn before I see the 5G UW symbol on my 12 Pro Max. Manhattan is arguably the mmWave capital of the country right now, and I have yet to connect to it even once in 9 months of usage. 99.9% of the public should not give a rat's butt about mmWave 5G.
Doesn’t the battery life really take a hit when using 5G?
Still don’t understand why a smartphone needs 5G speeds. Home broadband, yes; smartphone no.