Opensignal's mid-year 5G report shows T-Mobile dominating
Opensignal published the findings of its mid-year report on 5G services across all three major US wireless service providers. The latest survey targeted customers across the country and related to their 5G experiences between March 16, 2022, and June 13, 2022.
T-Mobile and its more-established 5G network once again proved the big winner in this latest report. The magenta-flavored carrier took top honors for 5G download speeds for the sixth consecutive time, growing its lead over AT&T and Verizon by achieving an average download speed of 171Mbps, more than doubling the 72.8Mbps reported for Verizon Wireless and crushing AT&T's 53.6Mbps average.
ZDNET Recommends
While T-Mobile's lead remains secure for now, both Verizon and AT&T continue to see the benefits of adding the C-Band spectrum to their networks. Opensignal recorded a 29.7% speed increase for Verizon and a 9.1% jump for AT&T since its last measurement was taken.
Things were a little more even on the upload side of things. T-Mobile still took the top spot with upload speeds averaging 17.8Mbps, compared to Verizon's 14Mbps and AT&T's 10Mbps.
Interestingly, there was one notable area where Verizon managed to beat out its younger rival: gaming. Mobile gaming over a 5G connection on Verizon Wireless' network received a total score of 76.1 out of a possible 100 from the company's subscribers. This means it was the only carrier to fall into the "Good" range of 75-85 set down by Opensignal. Meanwhile, T-Mobile's users rated it a lower 72.5, and AT&T's users gave it 68.3.
Also: The 5 best gaming phones: Mobile gaming to the next level
Verizon also took the crown for the 5G voice experience, although this was one race that was almost a dead heat across all three carriers. Big red's customers gave it an average rating here of 80.7 out of 100, compared to T-Mobile's 79.3 and AT&T's 78.7.
Of course, none of these performance metrics matters if you can't access a 5G network, to begin with. Opensignal's measurement of 5G availability for mid-2022 once again held T-Mobile up as the gold standard of the moment. According to measurements, T-Mobile customers had access to 5G 40.6% of the time. This is more than double the 18.7% 5G availability experienced by AT&T subscribers and almost four times Verizon's 10.6% availability.
As both Verizon and AT&T continue deploying hardware to populate all of the C-Band spectrum they both spent fortunes acquiring, the 5G race will likely tighten up. But, for now, T-Mobile's head start (and all of the hardware provided by its Sprint acquisition) is keeping it well ahead of its competitors for fifth-generation dominance.