Skip to main content

T-Mobile’s 5G network just beat Verizon and AT&T (again)

T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T always claim to be America’s best 5G network in their commercials. T-Mobile boasts this even more so, and as it turns out, it’s true. During PCMag’s annual Best Mobile Network test (previously known as the Fastest Mobile Network test), T-Mobile won over Verizon and AT&T as the Best Mobile Network for the second year in a row.

PCMag gave T-Mobile the title after testers drove 10,000 miles across the country to measure its performance against Verizon and AT&T. The test involved driving to 30 cities and six rural regions to test each mobile carrier’s reliability using Samsung Galaxy S22+ smartphones. As expected, T-Mobile won that contest in 18 cities out of 30, followed by Verizon with eight and AT&T with four.

T-Mobile smartphone.
Jaap Arriens / Getty Images

T-Mobile also outran its rivals in terms of speed, specifically upload and download speeds, backing up its slogan of being “America’s fastest 5G network.” The carrier was the fastest in 19 cities out of 30, compared to Verizon with nine and AT&T with two. PCMag’s report noted that T-Mobile is performing better in rural areas, but explained that it still has more rural dead zones in the Northeast than Verizon and AT&T do.

Recommended Videos

The reason T-Mobile left Verizon and AT&T in the dust is because of mid-band 5G — something that carrier built from Sprint’s airwaves after acquiring the company for $26 billion in 2020. That’s how T-Mobile was able to gain coverage in rural dead zones in the Northeast, despite falling short in the rural areas of the Northwest, Washington State, and Georgia.

Meanwhile, Verizon, and AT&T are rushing to close the gap between themselves and T-Mobile using mid-band 5G acquired at an auction in February 2021. While Verizon started running its 5G network right away, AT&T has been waiting for the equipment required to build it. The latter carrier hopes to have a 5G network up and running by next year.

Cristina Alexander
Gaming/Mobile Writer
Cristina Alexander is a gaming and mobile writer at Digital Trends. She blends fair coverage of games industry topics that…
The iPhone 16 just beat the Galaxy S24 in a 5G speed test. Here are the results
A person holding the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Ookla recently conducted 5G speed and latency tests for the iPhone 16 series. The results showed that these phones performed exceptionally well compared to their predecessors and major competitors — even outperforming the Samsung Galaxy S24 series.

According to Speedtest data collected from 11 selected countries worldwide, the iPhone 16 series surpassed the earlier iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 series in terms of speed and latency. Compared to competitors like the Samsung Galaxy S24, the iPhone 16 achieved mixed results, yet still scored well overall.

Read more
Boost Mobile’s 5G network is becoming a real threat to other carriers
Boost Mobile store.

Boost Mobile has always been seen as a smaller phone service provider, but the trade-off of that is the lower prices it offers. The company has now announced major upgrades to its growing 5G network.

Previously, Boost Mobile operated as an MVNO (or mobile virtual network operator). In other words, Boost didn't have its own towers — it sort of piggybacked off the towers of other networks.

Read more
I still don’t have 5G at home, and the reasons why amazed me
4G reception bars on an iPhone 16 Pro Max.

As I write these words, seated in my home office, my phone has one single bar of 4G reception. If I go to a different room, I may see two bars.

I have repeatedly wondered why I do not have 5G reception at home. Considering it's nearing the end of 2024, it's a not unreasonable request given 5G launched here in the U.K. in mid-2019. I decided to find out what was going on. What I discovered was a mix of expected, and highly unexpected, reasons why 5G continues to not be available near me.
Do I live in the woods?

Read more