T-Mobile provided the fastest cellular service in the United States during the first quarter of 2022, says Ookla, the company behind the popular Speedtest internet bandwidth testing service.
T-Mobile’s median download speed was 117.83Mb/s on modern chipsets, while Verizon Wireless took second place and AT&T finished third. This represents another strong increase in download speed for T-Mobile, which had a median download speed of 90.65 Mbps during Q4 2021 and 62.35 Mbps in Q3 2021.
When considering just 5G connectivity, T-Mobile again had the fastest median download speed at 191.12Mb/s, followed by Verizon at 107.25Mb/s and AT&T at 68.43Mb/s.
T-Mobile has the largest 5G network of the three major cellular carriers, as it has used 600MHz low-band spectrum for 5G coverage across the United States. AT&T and Verizon currently do not have as large an availability as T-Mobile, but their speeds can be higher in urban areas.
T-Mobile and Verizon tied for the lowest median connection latency at 31 ms, while AT&T came in at 34 ms. T-Mobile’s “consistency score” was 88.3% of results showing at least 5Mb/s download and 1Mb/s upload speeds. Verizon came in second at 84.6% and AT&T was third at 82.1%.
Looking only at tests taken on a 5G connection, T-Mobile had the fastest median 5G download speed in the U.S. at 191.12 Mbps during Q1 2022, a slight increase over Q4 2021. Verizon Wireless remained second, but saw a strong increase in 5G speeds from 78.52 Mbps in Q4 2021 to 107.25 Mbps in Q1 2022 after it turned on its 5G C-band spectrum in January. AT&T, which also turned on new 5G spectrum during Q1 2022, remained third at 68.43 Mbps — roughly the same speed it recorded in Q4 2021
Ookla’s 5G Availability metric captures the percentage of users on 5G-capable devices that spend the majority of their time on 5G, both roaming and on-network. During Q1 2022, T-Mobile had the best 5G Availability in the U.S. at 65.0%. AT&T was second at 49.4% and Verizon Wireless was third at 28.2%.
Minnesota, the District of Columbia, Rhode Island, Illinois, and New Jersey had some of the fastest median download and upload speeds in the United States during the quarter, with St. Paul, Minnesota winning out as the city with the fastest speeds (136.72Mb/s median download speeds).