According to PCMag testing, T-Mobile's mid-band 5G network is widely available and has earned the title as America's fastest mobile network in 2021.
Every year, PCMag sends drivers across thousands of miles in the United States. Drivers traveled more than 10,000 miles this year and measured network speeds in 30 major metropolitan areas and six rural areas to determine the fastest carrier. T-Mobile had the fastest speeds of 5G in 24 cities and rural areas. AT&T was victorious in eight locations, and Verizon in two.
T-Mobile was the fastest overall at maximum speeds, while Verizon came in second at 93.7 Mb/s and 98.2Mb/s respectively. T-Mobile received a total speed score 96 while AT&T received 89 and Verizon got 86.
T-Mobile's mid-band spectrum is available to more than 165,000,000 people in the United States. This was thanks to the Sprint acquisition. It was able deliver the best results. PCMag found that T-Mobile's speeds of 150 Mb/s to 500 Mb/s were significantly better than those offered by AT&T and Verizon in most areas.
T-Mobile is the winner only when it comes 5G speeds. A 5G phone must be purchased to make use of the 5G network. AT&T won 4G speeds. AT&T outperformed T-Mobile especially in rural areas, particularly in the west United States.
Verizon's 5G was the fastest 5G due to its mmWave availability. However, these speeds are limited to major metropolitan areas and not accessible by most people at the moment. Only 3.27 percent of PCMag’s metro area tests found Verizon's mmWave connectivity. When you consider total 5G availability, Verizon's 5G network was slightly faster than its 4G network.
AT&T's 5G network was slower that its 4G network in most tests. PCMag therefore used AT&T's 4G network results for speed tests. PCMag says that AT&T's network has not improved in the past year.
PCMag provides more information about each carrier by providing detailed breakdowns of the testing results, as well as data for each city visited during speed tests.
