Availability, reliability and speed are three key aspects of a mobile network — but when it comes to 5G, it appears that each of the three national networks are excelling at a different one of those aspects, at least according to Rootmetrics’ analysis.
The benchmarking company has released its most recent 5G Scorecard testing analysis, and the accolades continue to be split among the three national carriers, with each network receiving the top spot in a different category: AT&T’s 5G network scored the highest on download speeds, T-Mobile US snagged the top spot for 5G availability and Verizon’s was tops for reliability. This was true in May as well.
Rootmetrics tests the top 125 most-populous U.S. markets every six months; so far in 2021, it has tested 85 of those and looked at data from those markets, as well as a deeper look at data from 20 cities recently tested this year and last, to tease out trends and progress.
In its analysis, Rootmetrics looks at both 5G-only availability and speed as well as what it calls “Everyday 5G” — a combination of results recorded both on 5G-only and 5G “mixed mode,” which it described as “the user experience of switching between 5G and 4G LTE during the same data activity, an experience becoming more and more common. With 5G growing fast and users switching between 5G-only and 5G mixed mode more and more often, Everyday 5G results offer the most accurate picture of the daily 5G experience when connected to 5G at least a portion of the time.”
Among the 20 recently tested cities, Rootmetrics highlighted:
-Cities with the most Everyday 5G availability for each carrier were Dallas with 97.5% availability for T-Mo’s mixed-mode 5G, Cincinnati, Ohio with 95.4% availability for AT&T and Rockford, IL with 86.7% availability for Verizon 5G. For 5G-only, the highest availability for AT&T was also in Cincinnati, at 88.9%; Verizon saw its highest 5G-only availability in Hampton Roads, VA at 59% and T-Mobile US had its best 5G-only availability in Spokane, WA at 72.9%.
-Some truly impressive median download speeds on mixed-mode 5G and 5G-only were clocked on T-Mo’s network, where Rootmetrics recorded mixed-mode 5G speeds of 195.8 Mbps in Hampton Roads and a whopping 232 Mbps on 5G-only in the same city. For AT&T, which won the top spot overall on speed, its mixed-mode 5G median speeds were highest in Raleigh, NC at 75.7 Mbps and 5G-only at 93.7 Mbps in Raleigh. topped out at 89.1 Mbps while its 5G-only speeds were at 91.1 Mbps (both in Kansas City). Verizon’s mixed-mode 5G saw the fastest median download speeds at 78.8 Mbps, and 5G-only median speeds of 87.5 Mbps, both in NYC.
Keep in mind, those stats don’t mean those cities have the fastest or most available 5G compared to all the other cities in the country — just among the latest round of 20 cities tested.
Rootmetrics also made note of the largest improvements for each carrier, year-over-year, in locations that it tested both in the first half of 2021 and the second half of 2020. AT&T, for instance, had no 5G registering in Raleigh during the second half of 2020 but Rootmetrics was able to get mixed-mode 5G availability 63.4% of the time in the first half of 2021. Likewise, Verizon didn’t post any 5G results in NYC during the second half of last year but now has 35% availability. Both of those likely reflect very rapid build-out efforts on the part of carriers in those markets. Rootmetrics also highlighted both improved speed and availability of T-Mo’s 5G in Hampton Roads, with availability increasing from 44% to about 67% and speeds nearly quadrupling from 56.5 Mbps to 195.8 Mbps.
Read Rootmetrics’ analysis here.
