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T-Mobile wins the 5G Download Speed award for the fourth time in a row, increasing once again its lead on Verizon and AT&T, with our T-Mobile users’ average 5G download speeds breaking through the 100 Mbps mark. In our last report, T-Mobile more than doubled its lead over second place from 16.3 Mbps to 35.2 Mbps. This time T-Mobile led by an impressive 62.7 Mbps and with a 5G Download Speed that’s more than twice as fast as AT&T and Verizon’s scores. Our T-Mobile users saw average 5G download speeds of 118.7 Mbps, ahead of our users on Verizon and AT&T which scored 56 Mbps and 51.5 Mbps, respectively.
T-Mobile comfortably wins in the two measures of 5G’s extent by increasing its lead in both 5G Availability and 5G Reach. Our T-Mobile users spent over one third of their time — 34.7% — with an active 5G connection compared with 16.4% for AT&T users and 9.7% on Verizon. Similarly, T-Mobile wins 5G Reach with a score of 7.2 on a 10 point scale, over two points ahead of its nearest rival. 5G Reach represents the proportion of locations a 5G user visits that have a 5G signal.
Verizon wins the 5G Video Experience award outright with a score of 61.3 points, after sharing the award with AT&T in July 2021. This means that Verizon is now the sole winner of our three experiential 5G metrics — 5G Video Experience, 5G Games Experience and 5G Voice App Experience, while in the last report it shared the win in 5G Video Experience with AT&T but won the other two outright.
Verizon wins the 5G Games Experience award with a score of 80.6 points, ahead of AT&T and T-Mobile which scored 73 and 67.2 points, respectively. Verizon is now the only U.S. carrier to place in the Good category (75-85). In our previous 5G report, AT&T also placed in the Good category, but has since seen its score of 75.4 points decrease by 2.3 points, and therefore joined T-Mobile in the Fair category (65-75).
T-Mobile wins the 5G Upload Speed award with a score of 16.1 Mbps, which shows a 0.9 Mbps improvement compared to our previous report. Verizon places second at 14.4 Mbps after scoring 14.2 Mbps last time, while AT&T follows behind with 9.7 Mbps — a 0.9 Mbps increase since our July 2021 5G report.
In this report, we have seen big movements in the 5G experience in a number of categories. However, there is only one change in our 5G award table since our previous 5G report: Verizon is now the sole winner of 5G Video Experience after sharing the award with AT&T last time.
U.S. carriers have further expanded their 5G coverage using their low band 5G networks. In July 2021, T-Mobile announced that it covered 305 million people using its 600 MHz frequency band, while AT&T revealed it covered 250 million people using the 850 MHz band. Earlier in the year, Verizon reported that its Nationwide 5G service was available for 230 million people.
However, the largest and most notable improvement that we have observed in this 5G report compared to the previous one was driven by the expansion of mid-band 5G. In fact, our T-Mobile users saw their 5G Download Speed increase by 35.6% to reach an impressive 118.7 Mbps — more than double the speeds that AT&T and Verizon 5G users experienced — driven by T-Mobile’s expansion of its 2.5 GHz spectrum layer. In July 2021, T-Mobile announced that it covered about 165 million people with its mid-band service, up from 125 million people in April, while still planning to cover 200 million people by the end of the year. Besides, T-Mobile also revealed it was targeting an increase in the amount of 2.5 GHz spectrum deployed from 60-80 MHz to 100 MHz, on average, across its footprint.
T-Mobile’s progress in the deployment of mid-band 5G clearly displayed in our recent 5G reports, and allowed T-Mobile to build an impressive lead in 5G Download Speed. But AT&T and Verizon are about to receive the first tranche of C-band spectrum (3.7–3.98 GHz) — which will be released in December 2021, and have made plans already to deploy their own mid-band 5G and follow the path T-Mobile pioneered with the deployment of its 2.5 GHz spectrum. AT&T announced it expects to cover 70-75 million people with its C-band spectrum by end-2022, rising to 200 million by end-2023. Verizon revealed that it plans to start using C-band spectrum in the first quarter of 2022, with initial coverage of around 100 million people, rising to more than 175 million people by 2023. While AT&T and Verizon will receive 40 MHz and 60 MHz of C-band spectrum, respectively, in December 2021, they will access the larger share of C-band spectrum that was auctioned early this year by December 2023, when the second tranche of spectrum will be released. By comparison, T-Mobile announced that it is aiming to cover 300 million people with its 2.5 GHz spectrum by end-2023, and to double its spectrum position from 100 MHz of mid-band to 200 MHz.
However, U.S. carriers may not need to wait for end-2023 to access additional mid-band spectrum. In fact, FCC’s Auction 110 is about to assign 100 MHz of mid-band spectrum in the 3.45-3.55 GHz range, and all three major carriers qualified in the spectrum sale.
Although mmWave networks may have conceded the spotlight to low and mid-band 5G networks, U.S. carriers are continuing with their mmWave deployments focused in high-traffic dense urban areas and venues, where users benefit from the significant boost in capacity that mmWave networks offer. Verizon recently announced that its mmWave 5G mobile service was available in parts of 82 cities, while its 5G Home service — that currently uses mmWave spectrum — was expanded to parts of 57 cities. Besides, AT&T and T-Mobile continue their selective deployments of mmWave 5G networks focused around venues and other high-traffic locations such as airports.
In this latest 5G Experience report we analyze the experience of our users when they were connected to 5G, combining the measurements taken across all 5G frequency bands. Also, we analyzed how the 5G experience varies across 35 leading U.S. states for 5G, as well as in the capital, Washington, D.C.
| 5G Mobile Experience Awards USA | |||
|---|---|---|---|
October 2021,
USA Report
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A
AT&T
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T
T-Mobile
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V
Verizon
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5G Availability
| |||
5G Reach
| |||
5G Video Experience
| |||
5G Games Experience
| |||
5G Voice App Experience
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5G Download Speed
| |||
5G Upload Speed
| |||
|
Mobile Experience Awards Winners
|
October 2021,
USA
|
|---|---|
|
5G Availability
|
T
T-Mobile
|
|
5G Reach
|
T
T-Mobile
|
|
5G Video Experience
|
V
Verizon
|
|
5G Games Experience
|
V
Verizon
|
|
5G Voice App Experience
|
V
Verizon
|
|
5G Download Speed
|
T
T-Mobile
|
|
5G Upload Speed
|
T
T-Mobile
|
T-Mobile increased its winning margin on our two measures of a network’s extent — 5G Availability and 5G Reach. Our T-Mobile users spent more than double the amount of time connected to 5G than we have measured on second-placed AT&T, reaching 34.7% of the time with 5G service. Our 5G users on AT&T were connected 16.4% of the time to 5G networks, while our Verizon users spent 9.7% of the time with 5G service.
Our users on all three U.S. carriers experienced declines to their 5G Availability compared to our previous report when T-Mobile’s 5G Availability reached 36.3%, AT&T scored 22.5% and Verizon 10.5%. Often, we see a seasonal effect on the mobile experience in the U.S. and other countries. A drop in 5G Availability was likely due to seasonality as mobile users spend more time outdoors in different, more rural, parts of the country during the warmer months.
However, while T-Mobile and Verizon saw relatively limited declines, as their scores fell by 1.6 and 0.8 percentage points, respectively, AT&T’s score decreased by a greater amount (6.1 percentage points) indicating that seasonality alone does not explain the change in AT&T’s score. It is possible that AT&T may have made some network configuration changes or had other problems with their 5G network that had an impact on its users’ 5G Availability.
Opensignal's 5G Availability compares the amount of time 5G users spent connected to 5G — the higher the percentage, the more time that users on a network were actually connected to 5G.
T-Mobile wins its third 5G Reach award in a row with a score of 7.2 points on a 10-point scale, which represents an increase of 0.1 points since our July 5G report. AT&T places second with 4.9 points — a 0.6 decrease compared to July. Verizon follows at a distance, with a score of 3.4 points, and shows the largest increase of 0.4 points compared to our previous report.
5G Reach represents the proportion of locations where 5G users have connected to 5G out of all the locations those users have visited, on a scale of 0-10. This measure complements our existing 5G Availability metric which represents the proportion of time 5G users spend connected to 5G.
Verizon once again places in the Good category (55-65) and wins the 5G Video Experience award outright with a score of 61.3 points, which is statistically unchanged compared to its previous score of 61.2 points from our July report. On the other hand, our AT&T users saw their 5G Video Experience score decrease from 61.3 points to 50.6 points — a 17.5% change — which means the carrier now comes last and scores in the Fair category (40-55), after jointly winning the award with Verizon in July. Finally, T-Mobile has seen a 0.6 points improvement to its 5G Video Experience score and joins Verizon in the Good category with 55.3 points, after scoring 54.8 points last time.
AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile all restrict video streaming quality to standard definition (SD) resolution in their entry-level unlimited 5G data plans. AT&T’s 5G Video Experience decline may be due to many possible reasons, including changes in video traffic management settings, challenges caused by relatively limited amounts of new 5G spectrum available, or more AT&T 5G users now choosing to stream video at lower resolutions.
Verizon wins the 5G Games Experience award with a score of 80.6 points on a 100-point scale, ahead of AT&T and T-Mobile which scored 73 points and 67.2 points, respectively. Our Verizon users were the only ones to see their average score statistically unchanged since our July report. Our users on AT&T experienced a small decline of 2.3 points, while T-Mobile saw a slight increase of 0.7 points. This has helped Verizon increase its winning margin over second-placed AT&T to 7.5 points, up from 5.5 points in our previous report. Verizon again placed in the Good category (75-85), while T-Mobile, as well as AT&T this time, placed in the Fair category (65-75).
Recently, Verizon and AT&T were both recognized among the top carriers globally showing the greatest uplift in Games Experience on 5G compared to 4G. However, U.S. carriers’ 5G Games Experience scores haven’t changed much since we started reporting on this metric in our April report. In fact, we expect that U.S. carriers will need to deploy 5G standalone access (SA) networks as well as adopt newer 5G standards before their users can fully reap the benefits of 5G and see their mobile gaming experience on 5G improve further.
Opensignal’s 5G Games Experience measures how mobile users experience real-time multiplayer mobile gaming on an operator’s 5G network. Measured on a scale of 0-100, it analyzes how the multiplayer mobile gaming experience is affected by mobile network conditions including latency, packet loss and jitter to determine the impact on gameplay and the overall multiplayer gaming experience.
Little has changed in 5G Voice App Experience for our users since the last report. Despite all three U.S. carriers experiencing very slight declines of 0.3-1.1 points, Verizon wins the award once again and placed in the Good category (80-87) together with AT&T, as they scored 82.7 points and 81.3 points, respectively. T-Mobile comes last with a score of 79.8 points, and although the carrier experienced the smallest decline of 0.3 points, that was enough to move it down into the Acceptable category (74-80) since it scored 80 points in our previous report.
Opensignal's 5G Voice App Experience measures the quality of experience for over-the-top (OTT) voice services — mobile voice apps such as WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook Messenger etc. — when users are connected to a 5G network.
T-Mobile has lined up yet another impressive improvement in 5G Download Speed since our last report. In our April report T-Mobile’s score increased from 58.1 Mbps to 71.3 Mbps — a boost of 22.6% — then jumped to 87.5 Mbps (an increase of 22.8%) in our July report, and has now blown over the 100 Mbps mark to reach 118.7 Mbps in this report — a further increase of 31.1 Mbps (35.6%) compared to July. T-Mobile is reaping the benefits from its ongoing deployment of the 2.5 GHz spectrum it acquired as part of the merger with Sprint, and the carrier is increasing both its population coverage, as well as the amount of spectrum deployed on that band.
On the other hand, our users on Verizon saw their average 5G download speeds increase by 3.7 Mbps to 56 Mbps since our previous report, while AT&T saw a 0.8 Mbps decline that brought it down to third place at 51.5 Mbps, after sharing the second place with Verizon in July when both operators scored 52.3 Mbps.
AT&T and Verizon are waiting for the release of the first block of C-band spectrum in December 2021, to deploy their own mid-band 5G and follow the path T-Mobile pioneered with the deployment of its 2.5 GHz spectrum.
T-Mobile maintains its hold of our 5G Upload Speed award with a score of 16.1 Mbps, which is 0.9 Mbps faster than what we observed in our July report. Verizon places second in 5G Upload Speed with a score of 14.4 Mbps, which represents a 0.2 Mbps improvement from our previous report, while AT&T’s score increased from 8.8 Mbps to 9.7 Mbps.
Opensignal has analyzed the 5G experience across 35 leading 5G states, as well as the capital Washington, D.C., to understand how the 5G experience varies across the nation.
T-Mobile dominates Opensignal’s regional 5G awards on both measures of the extent of 5G networks. In fact, T-Mobile wins all of the regional 5G Availability awards outright, as well as 34 of the 36 5G Reach awards. AT&T wins 5G Reach outright in California, while sharing the first place with T-Mobile in Arkansas. Our T-Mobile users spent 40% or more of their time connected to 5G in Nevada, Minnesota and D.C., while in the remaining 33 states T-Mobile’s 5G Availability ranged between 31.8% and 39.4%. By contrast, the highest 5G Availability score we measured on AT&T was 28.3% in California, while Verizon’s score reached 21.6% in D.C. Besides, our users on AT&T and Verizon spent less than 10% of their time connected to 5G in 12 and 16 states, respectively.
Verizon wins 5G Video Experience outright in 32 of the geographies analyzed while sharing the award with T-Mobile in Alabama, Connecticut, Hawaii and Louisiana, which were the four states where our Verizon users saw the lowest scores. This time, Verizon secured 34 Good scores (55-65), while achieving a Very Good score (65-75) in D.C. and Arkansas. T-Mobile obtained 25 Good scores and 11 Fair scores (40-55), while all of AT&T’s scores were in the Fair category.
Verizon wins 30 5G Games Experience regional awards outright, while sharing the award with AT&T in Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas, and with both AT&T and T-Mobile in Connecticut and New Jersey. Verizon was the only operator to achieve any Excellent ratings (85 or above), as it exceeded the 85-point mark in D.C., Oregon, Utah and Arizona, while collecting 27 Good scores (75-85) and five Fair scores (65-75). Most of AT&T’s scores were in the Fair category, but the carrier also secured 10 Good scores, despite recording a Poor score (40-65) in Hawaii. On the other hand, we observed half of T-Mobile’s 5G Games Experience scores in the Poor category, 14 in the Fair category, while the carrier achieved a Good rating in D.C., New Jersey, the state of New York and Pennsylvania.
Verizon is the sole winner of the 5G Voice App Experience award in 20 states, while AT&T wins outright in Ohio and Texas. The three national U.S. carriers share the victory in the District of Columbia, while AT&T and Verizon show a statistical tie for first place in 11 of the remaining 13 states, with AT&T and T-Mobile sharing the win in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
T-Mobile dominates our regional 5G Download Speed award table as it wins outright in D.C., as well as in all 35 states analyzed. Our users on all three carriers observed their highest scores in the District of Columbia, although AT&T’s score in D.C. was statistically tied with that of several other regions. However, while AT&T and Verizon reached 70.6 Mbps and 91.8 Mbps in the capital, respectively, our users’ average 5G download speeds on T-Mobile exceeded the 200 Mbps mark at 203.1 Mbps. Our T-Mobile users experienced a 5G Download Speed faster than 100 Mbps in 28 states besides D.C., including 163.1 Mbps in the state of New York, 143.8 Mbps in Illinois and 138.5 Mbps in New Jersey. Verizon scored above 70 Mbps in D.C., Maryland and Michigan, while the larger share of its scores ranged between 50 Mbps and 60 Mbps. AT&T scored above 70 Mbps in D.C. only, while seeing 14 states with a score below 50 Mbps, compared to Verizon’s seven states.
The 0.9 Mbps improvement in 5G Upload Speed we observed on T-Mobile’s 5G network at the national level spilled over into our regional table. In fact, this time T-Mobile wins outright 16 regional awards for 5G Upload Speed, while Verizon is the sole winner in 10 states. T-Mobile and Verizon share the victory in the remaining 10 states. Our T-Mobile users still see the fastest upload speeds that we have recorded on U.S. 5G networks, as T-Mobile reached 28.3 Mbps in the state of New York, 27 Mbps in D.C. and 23.2 Mbps in New Jersey. Our Verizon users experienced 5G Upload Speed in excess of 20 Mbps in D.C. (20.9 Mbps) and Illinois (20.1 Mbps), while AT&T’s fastest 5G Upload Speed was a tie break between the state of Washington, the capital D.C., and Oregon, where our users experienced 11.7 Mbps, 11.2 Mbps and 10.9 Mbps, respectively.
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Collecting billions of individual measurements daily from over 100 million devices globally, Opensignal independently analyzes mobile user experience on every major network operator around the globe.
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