Whether you actually rely on them to choose your wireless service provider or not, you all pay attention (at least occasionally) to those network performance comparisons between Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T put together every three or six months by analytics firms like Opensignal, RootMetrics, and Ookla.
Come on, you can admit that, as this is a totally safe space for such confessions, and besides, I already have the PhoneArena view counts to prove you frequently eat up the US State of the Mobile Union and Speedtest Connectivity reports, as well as my little roundups and examinations of said studies.
Now, what I generally like to do is think of these comparisons as sporting events, which are obviously fun to watch, but depending on many factors (like injuries, venues, and tactics), don't always reflect the true and undeniable quality of the teams or athletes involved. What I'm trying to say is that Verizon, for instance, can win a game or title in a certain stadium this week, then lose the next one if T-Mobile's roster is healthier. At the end of the day, what matters most is your general outlook on the industry.
Users know best
You know how they say that the customer is always right? I'm actually not sure if I agree with that statement in any situation, but when it comes to a US carrier's reliability, coverage, speed, and overall quality, I tend to care a lot more about what you think than what some tests show in conditions that don't always reflect real-life user experience over a longer period of time.
What is the best US carrier in your view?
In short, I believe that Verizon can be even prouder about dominating a PhoneArena survey started last week than winning the vast majority of the latest RootMetrics awards for nationwide mobile network performance.
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That's because my gut tells me that the 38.3 percent of more than 1,300 poll respondents who voted for Big Red as the best US carrier took more into consideration than the results of the reliability, responsiveness, speed, call performance, text performance, and video performance tests conducted in the last six months of 2025.
This was a big win for Verizon, but I don't think it's the main reason why so many of you think it's the best US carrier. | Image Credit -- Ookla
Before picking Verizon over T-Mobile and AT&T, I know you thought about all of those factors and how they feel and impact your day-to-day mobile experience, but at the same time, you probably focused on what matters most to you, and that's something these scientific reports will never be able to accurately measure.
That's because some people care more about download speeds, while others are primarily interested in how steady their 5G signal is in certain places, and only when you combine all these different opinions and views can you get something resembling a full picture of a network's quality.
There's no shame in coming second
At least not when the gap between first and second place is this small. But the distance between the top two US carriers and the bronze medalist is definitely a little embarrassing (although not exactly shocking) for AT&T, which did manage to win three gold ribbons in the latest RootMetrics analysis of overall performance.
That was actually a better tally than T-Mobile's result in the same report, but evidently, most of you don't think AT&T's network speed, call performance, and text performance are any good out in the real world.
T-Mobile can be (relatively) content with that 5G availability title and second place in our poll. | Image Credit -- Ookla
What personally makes me the happiest about the (preliminary) results of that poll embedded above is the number of voters that have so far chosen the "everyone is equally bad" option. Given how much negativity tends to float around social media and the comments sections of many of our articles on US carriers, I expected way more than 12.46 percent of you to go with that option, although I also kind of expected a significantly higher score for the "everyone is equally good" answer.
After all, if there's one thing nearly all RootMetrics, Opensignal, and Ookla studies of the last few years have unanimously shown, it's that all three major US carriers have made great progress across the speed, network availability, and reliability aspects. But clearly, this is not the kind of sporting event where you accept a draw as a possible outcome.
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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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