In typical John Legere fashion, the flamboyant T-Mobile CEO spent a large part of the 2020 Super Bowl weekend taunting Verizon for its big-budget ad campaign focusing on... 4G LTE speeds and all the things 5G technology will not change in people's lives.
Unsurprisingly, T-Mo is looking to have the last laugh by presenting an analysis of the big four US carriers' actual performance during the "big game" that saw the Kansas City Chiefs (of the great state of Missouri) prevail over the San Francisco 49ers. Because the numbers were shared by John Legere on Twitter, you might be skeptical of their reliability, but the in-depth report was compiled by Ookla, the well-known (and unbiased) company behind the popular Speedtest service.
After conducting its tests at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida during the 2020 Pro Football Championship, Ookla found that T-Mobile easily defeated its arch-rival in all but one network performance indicator. We're naturally talking about 5G download speeds, a category where Verizon comfortably triumphed thanks to its vastly superior mmWave technology.
Then again, that was a largely meaningless victory for the nation's top wireless service provider due to how difficult it apparently was in the stadium on Sunday to obtain and maintain a Big Red 5G signal. T-Mobile shared multiple short videos on social media demonstrating this network instability, including one where a Verizon 5G-enabled phone dropped from 5G to 4G LTE technology as a waving hand blocked the advanced signal in front of it.
Unfortunately for Verizon, its 4G LTE network was nowhere near fast enough at the Super Bowl to pick up the 5G slack, averaging lower download speeds than even Sprint and AT&T. AT&T also narrowly defeated Verizon in LTE upload speeds and LTE latency, while Sprint joined T-Mobile in crushing Big Red as far as both 5G uploads and 5G latency were concerned.
Sprint actually took home the overall 5G latency trophy, while T-Mobile won four out of six gold medals. Of course, one venue is not representative of the average nationwide scores the big four carriers can typically rack up, but the way T-Mo prepared for the year's biggest sporting event certainly suggests the "Un-carrier" has its priorities straight, unlike we know who.
Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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