What is the best US mobile network operator? If we leave any inherent trace of subjectivity aside and you ignore your personal experiences and those of the people around you, we can probably all come together and give the only scientifically backed and universally accepted answer deriving from countless independent reports and research papers published over the last few years.
But where does T-Mobile, which was most recently ranked above all of its national rivals in categories as diverse as download and upload speeds, network availability, consistency, latency, and 5G performance just yesterday, feature on a list of the world's top 5G service providers?
That may sound like a question with an impossible answer, but as daunting a task as it seems, Opensignal has managed to put together a rigorous new set of data covering the entire world and breaking it down into two groups of countries based on their land area. Unsurprisingly, the US falls into the first such group, and surprisingly or not, T-Mobile leads one of the group's key subsections, beating not only Verizon and AT&T but also the largest carriers in markets like India, Australia, Brazil, Japan, Indonesia, South Africa, Italy, Germany, and of course, China.
All hail the global 5G availability king!
You may not know this... if you've been living under a remote rock somewhere in the Great Smoky Mountains or you've somehow successfully avoided all of T-Mobile's ads and promotional campaigns since 2019 or so, but the "Un-carrier" adopted a radically different 5G rollout strategy compared to those of Verizon and AT&T, as well as many other operators in many other countries.
Initially focused on providing low-band 5G coverage to as many people around the nation as possible, T-Mo then proceeded with its mid-band deployments and expansions, rapidly improving speeds in thousands of cities and towns while largely ignoring the much faster mmWave technology favored by the competition.
The goal was always to help millions of customers enjoy meaningful 5G upgrades, and today's report confirms (for the umpteenth time) that the objective has been fulfilled with efficiency and ease. T-Mobile is not just the number one "group I" carrier in the world as far as 5G availability is concerned, absolutely crushing the silver and bronze medalists with huge advantages of 14.5 and 21.2 percent respectively.
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T-Mo's 5G availability score of 56.1 percent, in case you're wondering, represents not the theoretical coverage of its high-speed wireless service, but the proportion of time spent by its actual customers out in the real world on a 5G connection. In other words, said connection is currently available more than half the time for "eligible" users, which is a threshold no one else can exceed... apart from T-Mobile Puerto Rico. That's the "group II" 5G availability leader, and its supremacy over South Korea or Kuwait's top wireless dogs is equally overwhelming.
What about the 5G speed battle?
Unfortunately, there's no such thing as a perfect 5G network... yet, and because T-Mobile has been so focused on winning the 5G availability war, its name is not currently listed among the 5G global winners or 5G global leaders for download speed in either group I or group II.
What might seem more concerning for Magenta is its absence from the latest batch of 5G download speed global rising stars, which does include both AT&T and Verizon. But that's primarily because T-Mo's US rivals had a lot of room for improvement, jumping 53 and 35.7 percent respectively in this category from last year.
And guess who was number two on the world's "most improved" list last year with an incredible 98.9 percent surge in 5G download speeds from 2021? That's right, T-Mobile, which undoubtedly remains America's fastest 5G wireless service provider in addition to the 5G availability, latency, reliability, and consistency champ.
There's simply no contest at the moment, and despite AT&T and Verizon's decent progress of late, it feels safe to assume the status quo will not change anytime soon.
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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