T-Mobile US was the shining star in Ooka’s latest wireless rankings, taking home the gold in nearly every category, while Verizon and AT&T flip-flopped between second and third place.
According to Ookla’s findings, T-Mobile US was the fastest mobile operator in the United States during Q4 2021. The carrier achieved a median download speed of 90.65 Mbps, compared to AT&T’s 49.25 Mbps and Verizon’s 44.67 Mbps. Not only is T-Mobile besting its competition, but the latest results represent an impressive increase for the operator from its Q3 2021 medium download speed of 62.35 Mbps.
T-Mobile US also scored the lowest median latency at 31 ms, followed by Verizon at 32 ms and then AT&T third at 34 ms, as well as the highest consistency score, which measures a operator’s ability to provide consistent speeds. During Q4 2021, 87.3% of T-Mobile’s results showed at least 5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds. Verizon Wireless was second at 80.4% and AT&T was third at 80.2%.
When it came to 5G, T-Mobile US still surpassed Verizon and AT&T in all three categories: speed, availability and consistency. During the measured period, T-Mobile’s median download in the U.S. came in at 187.12 Mbps. Verizon Wireless was second at 78.52 Mbps and AT&T was third 68.82 Mbps. T-Mobile had the best 5G Availability of 61.4%. AT&T was second at 48.0% and Verizon Wireless was third at 36.4%. Finally, for consistency, T-Mobile had a score of 81.5%, Verizon Wireless had 77.3% and AT&T showed 69.6% of results showing speeds of at least 25 Mbps for download and 3 Mbps for upload over a 5G connection.
For what it’s worth, Verizon’s fixed broadband performed exceptionally, taking first place in speed, latency and consistency.
Ookla also ranked the 100 most populous U.S. cities according to their mobile speeds, honoring Jersey City, New Jersey as the place with the fastest median mobile download speed. During Q4 2021, Jersey City achieved a medium speed of 107.20 Mbps. Tampa, Florida was second; Washington, D.C. third; Baltimore, Maryland fourth and St. Paul, Minnesota fifth. Lubbock, Texas came in last place.