T-Mobile’s network delivered the fastest download speeds in tests conducted by OpenSignal during the fourth quarter. OpenSignal collects much of its data from users who choose to download its app, which tests network speeds and latency. The team said it collected data from 237,213 devices and generated almost 6 billion “mobile measurements” to determine that T-Mobile delivered the fastest network performance for users of the OpenSignal app.
“T-Mobile established itself as the dominant operator in speed,” OpenSignal wrote, adding the carrier “won nearly every OpenSignal performance award in the 4th quarter.”
OpenSignal measures download speeds, network availability and latency. Availability measures how often users were able to connect to a network when they tried to, not the percent of the population covered. T-Mobile came in first in all categories except for latency on 4G networks, which AT&T won.
Verizon was a close second to T-Mobile in many markets. OpenSignal noted that Verizon has brought its mobile network back to the speeds it was delivering before the carriers brought back unlimited data plans in 2017. Average download speed on the Verizon LTE network was 17.8 Mbps; T-Mobile’s was 19.4 Mbps.
AT&T and Sprint both had significantly slower speeds for this test group. AT&T’s average LTE download speeds was 13.3 Mbps, still shy of its February high of 14.2 Mbps, reached before AT&T brought back unlimited data. Sprint’s average LTE download speed was 12 Mbps, up 3 Mbps from a year ago.
