Verizon continues to reign supreme in RootMetrics’ testing, with the mobile network operator winning or tying for first in all of the company’s testing categories on a national basis with performance that the testing specialist called “outstanding across the board, with the strongest combination of stellar reliability and fast speeds among all networks.”
Verizon generally delivered the fastest median network speed, with its high water mark recorded in Dayton, Ohio: 67.8 Mbps. The carrier also won more awards outright at the state level than in previous testing rounds, outperforming competitors to the extent that it became harder for them to earn shared awards at the state level, the test company said in its most recent report on mobile network performance on a national, state and metro level.
RootMetrics ranks MNOs in terms of network reliability, network speed, data performance, call performance, text performance and overall performance. Its data for the most recent report is based on 3.9 million tests conducted across 125 metro areas in the first half of this year, including nearly 240,000 miles of drive testing and testing of more than 7,800 indoor locations.
While Verizon continued to dominate, the RootMetrics report also affirmed data on mobile customer experience published this week by OpenSignal that A&T saw significant improvements in its performance.
OpenSignal relies on crowd-sourced measurements collected automatically, at the device level. RootMetrics takes a traditional network testing strategy of testing conducted on specific devices with accompanying test equipment for more insight into the radio frequency environment.
AT&T saw a major jump in experienced download speeds, according to OpenSignal, that was “nothing short of astonishing.” RootMetrics, meanwhile, reported that at the metro level, AT&T “increased the number of markets in which it delivered median download speeds of at least 30 Mbps, moving from 38 in second-half 2018 testing to 78 in the first half of 2019, with speeds faster than 40 Mbps in 36 of those markets.” That still didn’t quite top Verizon, which delivered faster median download speeds in more markets: 38 metros with median download speeds of 40 Mbps or more, 47 markets with median download speeds between 30-40 Mbps (compared to AT&T’s 42) and 37 markets with median download speeds between 20-30 Mbps (versus AT&T’s 35, while Sprint delivered those speeds to 49 markets and T-Mobile US to 43).
The improved performance on AT&T’s side resulted in more awards won at the metro level in RootMetrics’ testing. Its national-level performance was “generally a step above those of both Sprint and T-Mobile,” RootMetrics said, though its ranking remained unchanged. At the state level, though, the carrier actually saw declines in the number of RootMetrics awards won in network speed, data performance and call performance — but that is because Verizon won more of those awards outright, RootMetrics said.
RootMetrics called out Sprint for noticeable improvement in its network reliability category, which improved from a fourth-place finishing in testing during the second half of 2018, to third in this round; the carrier’s ranking in all other categories was unchanged, mostly because competing carriers continued to improve faster. But RootMetrics did note that Sprint had “strong improvement for the second consecutive test period” in median download speeds, with solid call reliability and generally good data reliability. The test company found that while Sprint was delivering median download speeds of 30-40 Mbps to eight markets in the second half of 2018, that jumped to 33 in the first half of 2019.
T-Mobile US took the fourth-place spot in network reliability this time and continued its history of better performance at a metropolitan level than at a state or national level, RootMetrics said. T-Mobile US had a “modest improvement” in its metro market performance and is delivering median download speeds of at least 30 Mbps to 60 markets, with 24 having median download speeds faster than 40 Mbps, RootMetrics said. Its data reliability improved, and RootMetrics noted that T-Mobile and Verizon were the only two carriers to reach its “threshold of excellence” for staying connected in every metro area which was tested.
RootMetrics said that it would soon be testing the early 5G networks being rolled out across the country. It added that it had recently conducted an extensive study on mobile usage, in order to understand user expectations for 5G. Customer expectations for 5G include better reliability, faster internet speeds and video streaming, the company said — in fact, ISH Markit found that nearly 80% of consumers “believe 5G will lead them to do more video streaming on their smartphones.”
Other 5G-related findings included:
-Two-thirds of consumers said that they would wait to upgrade their smartphones until an “appropriate” 5G handset is available.
-90% of consumers said they would bundle 5G home internet service in a data plan that included their smartphone, automobile or other connected devices.
