Of course, speed isn’t the only metric that determines the best mobile internet provider. To that end, T-Mobile topped every performance metric that Ookla tracked. It offered the lowest latency of the three major providers and was also the most consistent with connectivity and speeds. Furthermore, T-Mobile is a clear leader when it comes to 5G-only connections as well. With the median download speed of 187.12 Mbps, the carrier led its rivals by a big margin. The number for Verizon and AT&T come in at 78.52 Mbps and 68.82 Mbps respectively. No surprises, T-Mobile was also better at 5G coverage and availability. Its users with a compatible 5G smartphone were connected to 5G for 61.4 percent of the time. By comparison, AT&T users spent less time on 5G (48 percent) than 4G and other connections. For Verizon users, that number further comes down to just 36.4 percent. We always knew Verizon was the worst when it comes to 5G coverage because it started with the mmWave 5G technology, which is all about speed. But its rivals have now improved on both speed and coverage departments. Hopefully, the recent deployment of the C-Band 5G spectrum will bring some improvements for the Big Red. Meanwhile, T-Mobile, which has been leading most of these quarterly performance charts since the beginning of last year, continues to raise the bar for its rivals. It will be interesting to see whether Verizon and AT&T, which also recently flipped the switch on C-Band 5G in several regions, will be able to match its performance in the coming months.
Ookla says Verizon offers the best fixed broadband internet
Verizon may not be the best choice for mobile internet in the US, but the company does offer the best broadband internet in the country. According to Ookla, Verizon achieved the Speed Score of 201.10 during Q4 2021. XFINITY came in second with a score of 175.86 while Cox reached a score of 171.92. Spectrum (152.47) and AT&T (148.67) make up the top five best broadband internet providers in terms of speed. Verizon was also better than its rivals in terms of latency and consistency. Its Consistency Score of 90.2 percent was closely matched by XFINITY (90.1 percent) and Spectrum (89.9 percent). You can check out the full report from Ookla here to see how the company measures these scores. The report also contains a performance breakdown of select mobile devices, manufacturers, and chipsets, as well as regional and city-wise speed information for both mobile and broadband internet. Ookla says it has changed its Speedtest Global Index to show the median download speeds because they “best reflect the speeds a user is likely to achieve in a market” than average speeds.
