AT&T Jumps to First Place in U.S. Mobile Speeds, but Verizon Still Most Consistent

Ookla, the company behind the popular Speedtest bandwidth measurement service, today released its 2019 Speedtest Mobile Performance Report, leveraging over 11.5 million speed tests from over 4 million unique devices to rank the network performance of the major U.S. carriers during the first half of 2019.

Overall, Ookla found that the mean mobile download speed rose to 33.88 Mbps during the first half of the year, up 24 percent compared to the same period in 2018. That improvement allowed the U.S. to rise from 43rd to 40th in the global rankings of mobile download performance. Mean upload speeds rose 13 percent to 9.75 Mbps, which actually resulted in a drop of 21 spots to 94th in the global rankings.

ookla 2019 network performance
Looking at the four major U.S. carriers, AT&T came out on top in this year's survey with a Speed Score (a weighted rating of 90% download and 10% upload speeds) of 32.91, with T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint following behind. That marks a significant improvement for AT&T, which placed third in last year's survey.

Delivering LTE service over seven licensed frequency bands and increasing the amount of seeded devices capable of four and five carrier aggregation has been paying off for AT&T. Over the past year, AT&T has managed to leapfrog the competition to produce the fastest download speeds across the country.

AT&T’s addition of FirstNet spectrum meant a required maintenance visit to cell sites and the addition of brand new hardware at those locations. AT&T wisely used this opportunity to also upgrade the existing radio access infrastructure, including replacing the aging Alcatel-Lucent equipment with Nokia in some areas and adding the 2.3 GHz WCS spectrum for additional capacity. This strategy, combined with a slew of Category 15-20 LTE smartphones, meant a tremendous boost in coverage, speeds and overall capacity.

But beyond raw download and upload speeds, Ookla also looked at several other metrics including Acceptable Speed Ratio, which is the percent of samples from a given carrier that measured at least 5 Mbps. By this metric, Verizon maintained its spot atop the rankings from last year, with 87.3 percent of samples meeting the 5 Mbps standard in 2019. T-Mobile and AT&T were fairly close behind at 86.9 percent and 85.9 percent respectively, with Sprint trailing at 81.2 percent.

ookla 2019 speed distribution
Verizon also topped the rankings in 4G LTE support, with 95.9 percent of time spent on what is currently the fastest mainstream standard. T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T rounded out the rankings, with AT&T users still seeing 7.4 percent of time spent on 3G technology.

ookla 2019 technologies
Looking ahead toward 5G technology that's just starting to roll out, Ookla has opted not to release performance data at this point due to the very limited geographies where it's available and lack of widespread device support for now, but the company has seen speeds in excess of 2 Gbps in some real-world consumer speed tests.

Ookla has plenty more data on its page dedicated to this year's study, including a state-by-state breakdown where you can see how the major carriers rank on a more localized basis.

Tag: Ookla

Top Rated Comments

Breaking Good Avatar
58 months ago
My take away from this is that there is nothing here that justifies paying more for one cellular carrier over another. Go with the least expensive carrier that has coverage in the places you frequent and periodically re-evaluate your choice to see if there are better options.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dannyyankou Avatar
58 months ago
I’ll take consistency over top maximum speed. Obviously hyperbole, but if there was a network that only worked in Montana and Idaho but with the fastest speeds, it’s kinda useless.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dlewis23 Avatar
58 months ago
It still really depends on where you live as to who is the fastest no one carrier is consistent across the country.
[doublepost=1562678265][/doublepost]
I call complete garbage. AT&T is the worst in the area I use it. It speeds are consistently ridiculously low
Just because they are the worst in your area doesn't mean they are not fastest in others.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MarkDeMoss Avatar
58 months ago
I'm on Verizon using their Beyond Unlimited Plan. It's a single phone plan so I pay $85. I'd switch to another carrier, but all four carriers cost the same for the same features (plus or minus $5).

If a get another line, then the carriers will give us a paltry $5-10 discount. It takes 3 lines before you start seeing $30-40 discounts per line. It's so stark that 3 lines is the same price as 2 lines on some carriers.

I recently drove from Connecticut to Tennessee and back. My friend has AT&T Unlimited. It's was good to have both carriers as we were in the mountains, some places I would get coverage and another place he had coverage. There was one point where we were on the Blue Ridge Mountain and if we would have had the same carrier we might have run out of gas.

I switched from having AT&T two years ago to Verizon and honestly I think it's a wash. I had AT&T for 18 years prior to the switch. I thought Verizon would be better in rural parts but that's not necessarily been the case for me. I guess I thought Verizon would be SO MUCH better than AT&T and so it's disappointed me. It's not worse, may be a bit better, but it's not so big that it'd make me loyal to Verizon.

What I like about Verizon and this is why I switched in June 2017 is because their iPhones are unlocked to all carriers. I remember trying to get a friend's Sprint iPhone unlocked by Sprint (which they say you can do), it was such a nightmare, we ended up giving up and just selling it.

I also like the free Apple Music on Verizon. The Hulu and Netflix offerings of other carriers wouldn't work for me as I prefer the top tier Hulu and Netflix plans. The free Amazon Prime on Sprint would be a nice feature though.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
M.PaulCezanne Avatar
58 months ago
I pay $80/mo for full T-Mobile One service for TWO lines ($40 per line). Verizon's equivalent plan costs at least TWICE as much, while ATT's is nearly twice. Network speeds are virtually identical. The choice is crystal clear for me.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jamezr Avatar
58 months ago
Was a T-Mobile customer for years...best customer service of any carrier in my experiences. But their coverage fell off the planet in buildings or outside of big cities. Switched to verizon and love the coverage...no dropped calls and i can get data service in buildings and areas outside of big cities when hiking.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 17

iOS 17.2 Will Add These 12 New Features to Your iPhone

Friday December 1, 2023 12:19 pm PST by
iOS 17.2 has been in beta testing for over a month, and it should be released to all users in a few more weeks. The software update includes many new features and changes for iPhones, including the dozen that we have highlighted below. iOS 17.2 is expected to be released to the public in mid-December. To learn about even more features coming in the update, check out our full list. Journal ...
iOS 17

Apple Releases iOS 17.1.2 With Security Fixes

Thursday November 30, 2023 10:12 am PST by
Apple today released iOS 17.1.2 and iPadOS 17.1.2, small updates to the iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 operating systems that Apple introduced in September. iOS 17.1.2 and iPadOS 17.1.2 come a few weeks after the release of iOS 17.1.1, another bug fix update. iOS 17.1.2 and iPadOS 17.1.2 can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update....
iOS 17

28 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in December's iOS 17.2 Update

Friday December 1, 2023 2:57 am PST by
Apple made the first beta of iOS 17.2 available to developers in October. Since then we've seen three more betas, and with each iteration Apple continues to add more new features and changes, many of which users have been anticipating for quite a while. Below, we've listed 28 new things that are coming to your iPhone when the finalized version is publicly released this December. 1. Help...
apple card 1

Apple Ending Apple Card Partnership With Goldman Sachs

Tuesday November 28, 2023 3:09 pm PST by
Apple is ending its credit card partnership with Goldman Sachs, according to The Wall Street Journal. Apple plans to stop working with Goldman Sachs in the next 12 to 15 months, and it is not yet clear if Apple has established a new partnership for the Apple Card. Apple and Goldman Sachs will dissolve their entire consumer partnership, including the Apple Card and the Apple Savings account....
iOS 17

Everything New in iOS 17.2 Beta 4

Tuesday November 28, 2023 12:18 pm PST by
Apple is wrapping up development on iOS 17.2, with the update expected to come out in December. While we're getting to the end of the beta testing period, Apple is still tweaking features and adding new functionality. We've rounded up everything new in the fourth beta of iOS 17.2. Default Notification Sound Under Sounds & Haptics, there's a new "Default Alerts" section that allows you to ...
iPhone 16 Mock Header Updated 1

iPhone 16 to Include Action Button Across Entire Lineup

Thursday November 30, 2023 4:08 pm PST by
The release of the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max saw the introduction of an entirely new user-configurable button known as the Action button, and now, MacRumors has seen extensive evidence confirming Apple is planning to include the Action button on the entire iPhone 16 range. Designs and plans for the Action button date back to at least 2021, as the button was intended for release alongside hapt...
anker new xmas

Anker's Cyber Week Sale Enters Final Days With Up to 60% Off Sitewide

Friday December 1, 2023 12:05 pm PST by
Anker's Black Friday/Cyber Week event is entering its final days this weekend, and it's still offering up to 60 percent off sitewide. There are also a few "mystery boxes" that can include hundreds of dollars in savings, if you're willing to risk not knowing what you're buying ahead of time. All of these sales will end on December 3. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Anker. When you...
paramount plus logo

Apple and Paramount Considering Discounted TV+ Streaming Bundle

Friday December 1, 2023 4:40 am PST by
Apple and Paramount have discussed bundling their TV streaming services at a discount, according to a new report by The Wall Street Journal. The companies have talked about offering a combination of Paramount+ and Apple TV+ that would cost less than subscribing to both services separately, according to people familiar with the discussions. The discussions are in their early stages, and it is ...
General Apps Messages

Green Bubbles on iPhone to Gain These 7 New Features Next Year

Thursday November 30, 2023 9:00 am PST by
Earlier this month, Apple announced that it will finally support RCS in the Messages app on the iPhone starting later next year. This change will result in several improvements to the messaging experience between iPhones and Android devices. RCS will become the new default standard for messaging between iPhones and Android devices, but these conversations will still have green bubbles like...