USA
Opensignal is the independent global standard for analyzing consumers' connectivity experiences. Our industry reports are the definitive guide to understanding what happens when people use their mobile and broadband connections in their daily life.
USA
Opensignal is the independent global standard for analyzing consumers' connectivity experiences. Our industry reports are the definitive guide to understanding what happens when people use their mobile and broadband connections in their daily life.
Key Findings
T-Mobile’s Download Speed Experience is about double its competitors’
T-Mobile is the outright winner of the Download Speed Experience award with a score of 61.7 Mbps, and a large lead on its competitors largely driven by 5G improvements, for example the use of the 2.5GHz band. In fact, T-Mobile’s score is now close to 80% faster than AT&T’s 34.4 Mbps, and more than double the average download speed our users experienced on Verizon — 29.8 Mbps.
Verizon leads in 4G Coverage Experience while AT&T wins Availability
In the Coverage section, Verizon holds the 4G Coverage Experience award with a near-perfect score of 9.9 on a 10 point scale, ahead of AT&T on 9.8 and T-Mobile's 9.5. However, it is AT&T that wins Availability with an extremely narrow lead on Verizon as the two carriers scored 99.3% and 99.1%, respectively. While Availability represents the proportion of time all Opensignal users on an operator’s network had either a 3G, 4G or 5G connection, 4G Coverage Experience analyzes the locations where customers of a network operator received a 4G signal relative to the locations visited by users of all network operators.
T-Mobile comes ahead in both Games Experience and Voice App Experience
Our users on T-Mobile’s network enjoyed the best multiplayer mobile gaming experience, as well as the best experience for over-the-top (OTT) voice services. In both Games Experience and Voice App Experience we see a similar placing with T-Mobile coming up as the sole winner, followed by Verizon and AT&T in second and third place, respectively.
T-Mobile wins both Excellent and Core Consistent Quality awards outright
T-Mobile wins the Excellent Consistent Quality award with a five percentage points margin over second-placed Verizon. In Core Consistent Quality, T-Mobile beats AT&T by 1.6 percentage points. Our measures of consistent quality quantify how often users’ experience on a network was sufficient to support common applications’ requirements. Excellent Consistent Quality analyzes the percentage of users' tests that met the minimum recommended thresholds for watching HD video, completing group video conference calls and playing games. Core Consistent Quality uses thresholds for less demanding applications.
Mobile Experience Awards
Market Overview
In Opensignal's latest USA Mobile Network Experience report we analyze the overall experience of our users across all network technologies. Also, we add two awards that quantify the consistency of the experience on the country’s three national carriers.
T-Mobile leads across most mobile experience categories in the U.S. based on Opensignal’s awards table as it wins six awards outright — all four awards in the Overall Experience section, as well as both Consistent Quality awards. AT&T and Verizon each collect one award in the Coverage section as the former carrier is the outright winner of the Availability award, while the latter triumphs in 4G Coverage Experience.
5G is having a large impact on users’ overall mobile experience, and that is particularly clear when we look at the lead that T-Mobile has built in Download Speed Experience compared to AT&T and Verizon. Users’ 5G measurements contribute to the overall experience awards in this report. Also, more and more users are adopting 5G — for example, in April, T-Mobile revealed that approximately 45% of its post-paid subscriptions were using a 5G phone. This means that with growing 5G adoption, and with carriers extending their mid-band 5G networks and deploying more spectrum, 5G will continue to raise the overall experience of users throughout the coming years.
In this report we examine the mobile network experience of the three main mobile carriers in the U.S. — AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon — over a period of 90 days starting on March 16, 2022 and ending on June 13, 2022, to see how they fared.
We have published a companion USA 5G Experience report, which analyzes the experience of our 5G users when they were connected to 5G. We have also analyzed for the first time the mobile adaptive video experience in the U.S. using Adaptive bitrate streaming (ABR), a technology that allows us to better represent users’ real video experience in markets where they can stream up to 4K resolution when on 5G.
Overall Experience
National Analysis
Our users had their best experience when playing multiplayer mobile games over cellular connections on T-Mobile’s network. The carrier scored 66.1 points on a 100 point scale, with a 1.3 point lead over second-placed Verizon’s score of 64.8 points. AT&T follows in third place with a score of 64.2 points. This means that, while T-Mobile placed in the Fair category (65-75), Verizon and AT&T obtained Poor ratings (40-65).
Definitions
Opensignal’s Games Experience measures how mobile users experience real-time multiplayer mobile gaming on an operator’s network. Measured on a scale of 0-100, it analyzes how our users’ multiplayer mobile gaming experience is affected by mobile network conditions including latency, packet loss and jitter.
Games Experience quantifies the experience when playing real-time multiplayer mobile games on mobile devices connected to servers located around the world. The approach is built on several years of research quantifying the relationship between technical network parameters and the gaming experience as reported by real mobile users. These parameters include latency (round trip time), jitter (variability of latency) and packet loss (the proportion of data packets that never reach their destination). Additionally, it considers multiple genres of multiplayer mobile games to measure the average sensitivity to network conditions. The games tested include some of the most popular real-time multiplayer mobile games (such as Fortnite, Pro Evolution Soccer and Arena of Valor) played around the world.
Calculating Games Experience starts with measuring the end-to-end experience from users’ devices to internet end-points that host real games. The score is then measured on a scale from 0 to 100.
In addition to Games Experience, we report on the following metrics related to games experience:
- 5G Games Experience: The average Games Experience of Opensignal users when they were connected to an operator’s 5G network.
- Games Experience – 5G Users: The average Games Experience of Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription across an operator's networks. It factors in 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G games experience along with the availability of each technology.
- 4G Games Experience: The average Games Experience of Opensignal users on an operator's 4G network.
- 3G Games Experience: The average Games Experience of Opensignal users on an operator's 3G (e.g. UMTS/HSPA or CDMA 1X EV-DO) network.
National Analysis
T-Mobile is the outright winner of the Voice App Experience award, with a score of 76.8 points on a 100 point scale. However, its margin of victory is relatively narrow, given second-placed Verizon’s score of 76 points. AT&T places third with a score of 75.9 points. All three mobile carriers placed in the Acceptable category (74-80) for Voice App Experience.
Definitions
Opensignal's Voice App Experience measures the quality of experience for over-the-top (OTT) voice services — mobile voice apps such as WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger — using a model derived from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach for quantifying overall voice call quality and a series of calibrated technical parameters. This model characterizes the exact relationship between the technical measurements and perceived call quality. Voice App Experience for each operator is calculated on a scale from 0 to 100.
In addition to Voice App Experience, we report on the following metrics related to voice app experience:
- 5G Voice App Experience: The average Voice App Experience of Opensignal users when they were connected to an operator’s 5G network.
- Voice App Experience – 5G Users: The average Voice App Experience of Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription across an operator's networks. It factors in 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G voice app experience along with the availability of each technology.
- 4G Voice App Experience: The average Voice App Experience of Opensignal users on an operator's 4G network.
- 3G Voice App Experience: The average Voice App Experience of Opensignal users on an operator's 3G (e.g. UMTS/HSPA or CDMA 1X EV-DO) network.
National Analysis
Our users observed the fastest average overall download speeds on T-Mobile’s network — 61.7 Mbps, which was 27.3 Mbps (79.4%) faster than second-placed AT&T’s score of 34.4 Mbps. As a result, T-Mobile is the outright winner of the Download Speed Experience award. Verizon comes in third place with 29.8 Mbps, which is 31.9 Mbps slower than T-Mobile’s score.
Definitions
Measured in Mbps, Download Speed Experience represents the typical everyday speeds a user experiences across an operator’s mobile data networks.
In addition to Download Speed Experience, we report on the following metrics related to download speeds:
- 5G Download Speed: The average download speed observed by Opensignal users with active 5G connections.
- Download Speed Experience – 5G Users: The average download speeds experienced by Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription across an operator’s networks. It factors in 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G download speeds along with the availability of each technology.
- 4G Download Speed: The average downlink speed observed by Opensignal users when they were connected to 4G.
- 3G Download Speed: The average downlink speed observed by Opensignal users when they were connected to 3G (e.g. UMTS/HSPA or CDMA 1X EV-DO).
National Analysis
T-Mobile is the outright winner of the Upload Speed Experience award with a score of 9.8 Mbps. It wins by a margin of 2 Mbps over second-placed Verizon given the latter’s score of 7.8 Mbps. AT&T follows in third place as our users on its network experienced average upload speeds of 6.1 Mbps.
Definitions
Upload Speed Experience measures the average upload speeds for each operator observed by our users across their mobile data networks. Typically upload speeds are slower than download speeds, as current mobile broadband technologies focus resources on providing the best possible download speed for users consuming content on their devices. As mobile internet trends move away from downloading content to creating content and supporting real-time communications services, upload speeds are becoming more vital and new technologies are emerging that boost upstream capacity.
In addition to Upload Speed Experience, we report on five supporting metrics related to upload speeds:
- 5G Upload Speed: The average upload speed observed by Opensignal users with active 5G connections.
- Upload Speed Experience – 5G Users: The average upload speeds experienced by Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription across an operator’s networks. It factors in 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G upload speeds along with the availability of each technology.
- 4G Upload Speed: The average uplink speed observed by Opensignal users when they were connected to 4G.
- 3G Upload Speed: The average uplink speed observed by Opensignal users when they were connected to 3G (e.g. UMTS/HSPA or CDMA 1X EV-DO).
Regional Analysis
We have analyzed the mobile network experience across 43 U.S. states, plus the capital Washington D.C. — the same set as in the companion USA 5G Experience report. By a large margin T-Mobile secures the largest number of regional awards in the Overall Experience section, as it wins 90 awards outright and shares an additional 45 awards with at least one of its competitors. AT&T and Verizon win outright 14 and 20 awards each, while having an additional 33 and 35 shared wins, respectively.
T-Mobile dominates both Download Speed Experience and Upload Speed Experience as it wins 40 and 31 awards outright, respectively, in the two categories. T-Mobile also secures 33 regional Voice App Experience awards as well as 25 regional awards for Games Experience — although most of the victories in these three categories were shared (39) with one or both its competitors.
AT&T is the sole winner of Download Speed Experience in South Dakota and West Virginia, and shares the award with T-Mobile in Maine and Montana. AT&T also collects 43 regional awards across Games Experience and Voice App Experience, although most of those were shared victories (31).
Verizon appears to be the main challenger to T-Mobile’s dominance in the speed categories as it secures 13 regional Upload Speed Experience awards — nine outright and four shared — but no award in Download Speed Experience. Verizon also collects 22 regional awards in Games Experience and 20 awards in Voice App Experience — with the majority of these being shared awards (31).
Regional Analysis Summary: USA, Mobile Network Experience Report, July 2022
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Coverage
AT&T
T-Mobile
Verizon
National Analysis
AT&T is the outright winner of the Availability award, with a near-perfect score of 99.3%. This means that our AT&T users spent the largest proportion of time connected to either 3G, 4G, or 5G. Verizon comes behind AT&T with a score of 99.1% while T-Mobile is in third place with a score of 98.5%
Definitions
Our availability metrics are not a measure of a network’s geographical extent. They won’t tell you whether you are likely to get a signal if you plan to visit a remote rural or nearly uninhabited region. Instead, they measure what proportion of time people have a network connection, in the places they most commonly frequent — something often missed by traditional coverage metrics. Looking at when users have a connection rather than where, provides us with a more precise reflection of the true user experience.
We also keep track of the instances that leave mobile users most frustrated: when there is no signal to connect to at all. The most common dead zones users struggle with occur indoors. As most of our availability data is collected indoors (as that’s where users spend most of their time), we’re particularly astute at detecting areas of zero signal.
Our availability metrics take a user-centric, time-based approach that complements the user-centric and geographical-based methodology used by our reach metrics.
Availability shows the proportion of time all Opensignal users on an operator’s network had either a 3G, 4G or 5G connection.
Map Definition
The coverage maps show the locations where we received measurements from users connecting with 3G or better mobile service. Each map provides an indication of the areas in which it is possible to obtain mobile service from that mobile operator.
National Analysis
Verizon wins the 4G Coverage Experience award with a near-perfect score of 9.9 on a 10 point scale. AT&T is second with 9.8 points followed by T-Mobile’s score of 9.5 points.
Definitions
4G Coverage Experience measures how mobile subscribers experience 4G coverage on an operator’s network. Measured on a scale of 0-10, it analyzes the locations where customers of a network operator received a 4G signal relative to the locations visited by users of all network operators.
In simple terms, 4G Coverage Experience measures the mobile coverage experience in all the locations that matter most to everyday users — i.e. all the places where they live, work and travel. It considers all the areas that Opensignal users visit, the portion of locations that 4G is available to them, and locations that more users visit have higher importance to them.
Map Definition
The coverage maps show the locations where we received measurements from users connecting with 3G or better mobile service. Each map provides an indication of the areas in which it is possible to obtain mobile service from that mobile operator.
Regional Analysis
AT&T upholds its national victory in Availability by winning outright 23 regional awards for this category, while sharing the remaining 21. Verizon shares 20 of the 21 awards that resulted in a joint victory, while T-Mobile is a joint winner in the District of Columbia, Rhode Island and Utah. Our users in all states spent 95% or more of their time connected to 3G, 4G or 5G networks, regardless of their choice of mobile carrier.
Regional Analysis Summary: USA, Mobile Network Experience Report, July 2022
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A-D
- Alabama
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
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E-H
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
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I-L
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
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M-P
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
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Q-T
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
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U-X
- Utah
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
in Alabama
in Arizona
in Arkansas
in California
in Colorado
in Connecticut
in Delaware
in District of Columbia
in Florida
in Georgia
in Hawaii
in Idaho
in Illinois
in Indiana
in Kansas
in Kentucky
in Louisiana
in Maine
in Maryland
in Massachusetts
in Michigan
in Minnesota
in Mississippi
in Missouri
in Montana
in Nevada
in New Jersey
in New Mexico
in New York
in North Carolina
in Ohio
in Oklahoma
in Oregon
in Pennsylvania
in Rhode Island
in South Carolina
in South Dakota
in Tennessee
in Texas
in Utah
in Virginia
in Washington
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Consistency
National Analysis
T-Mobile is the sole winner of the Excellent Consistent Quality award as its score of 80.3% is five percentage points higher than that of second-placed Verizon’s 75.3%. AT&T follows in a close third place with 74%.
Definitions
Consistent Quality measures how often users’ experience on a network was sufficient to support common applications’ requirements. It measures download speed, upload speed, latency, jitter, packet loss, time to first byte and the percentage of tests attempted which did not succeed due to a connectivity issue on either the download or server response component.
Full details on how the Consistent Quality metrics — Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent Quality — are calculated can be found here.
Excellent Consistent Quality is the percentage of users’ tests that met the minimum recommended performance thresholds to watch HD video, complete group video conference calls and play games.
National Analysis
As is the case with Excellent Consistent Quality, T-Mobile is the outright winner of the Core Consistent Quality award. The carrier wins with a score of 91.7%, 1.6 percentage points ahead of second-placed AT&T’s score of 90.1%. Verizon is in third place with 89.9.
Definitions
Consistent Quality measures how often users’ experience on a network was sufficient to support common applications’ requirements. It measures download speed, upload speed, latency, jitter, packet loss, time to first byte and the percentage of tests attempted which did not succeed due to a connectivity issue on either the download or server response component.
Full details on how the Consistent Quality metrics — Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent Quality — are calculated can be found here.
Core Consistent Quality is the percentage of users’ tests that met the minimum recommended performance thresholds for lower performance applications including SD video, voice calls and web browsing.
Related Analysis
Our Methodology
Collecting billions of individual measurements daily from over 100 million devices globally, Opensignal independently analyzes mobile and broadband user experience on every major network operator around the globe.
About Opensignal
Opensignal is the leading global provider of independent insights into consumers' connectivity experiences and choice of carrier. Our proprietary insights into mobile and broadband networks give operators the solutions they need to profitably compete and win, from executive level scorecards and public validation to pin-point level engineering analytics and consumer decision dynamics.
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Confidence Intervals
For every metric we calculate statistical confidence intervals indicated on our graphs. When confidence intervals overlap, our measured results are too close to declare a winner. In those cases, we show a statistical draw. For this reason, some metrics have multiple operator winners.
In our bar graphs we represent confidence intervals as boundaries on either sides of graph bars.
In our supporting-metric charts we show confidence intervals as +/- numerical values.
Why confidence intervals are vital in analyzing mobile network experience