You don’t believe speed tests are a measure of T-Mobile’s prowess, and you’re probably right

Many customers of T-Mobile are fiercely loyal to the “un-carrier”, despite some recent controversies that made some users switch to alternatives. But it’s not just loyalty that’s driving your defense of the company, many of you understand that simple speed tests don’t determine how good a certain carrier is.

T-Mobile losing to AT&T?

In a recent poll, you voted on whether AT&T was beating T-Mobile, or if a speed test between the two failed to paint the whole picture. Over 42 percent of you claimed that T-Mobile was still better than AT&T, despite the slower download speeds. A little over 32 percent of you said that tests like this weren’t indicative of anything concrete.

Only 25 percent of voters were open to the possibility that T-Mobile might be about to lose its lead in 5G across the States.

So, is T-Mobile falling behind?

Is T-Mobile falling behind if its 5G download speeds were somewhat slower than those found on AT&T? Not necessarily. In fact, probably not at all.

As some of you pointed out, a single test is hardly conclusive proof of a carrier’s superiority over another. Secondly, the test was conducted after AT&T had just begun rolling out its better 5G capabilities. Naturally, the bandwidth seen on AT&T’s network will begin decreasing massively once more users start benefiting from the new infrastructure.

What’s fascinating is that T-Mobile’s latency was still better, despite likely being a much busier network in that location due to having deployed this infrastructure years ago. That means that the real-world experience of surfing the web is still going to feel better on T-Mobile’s network.

Diminishing returns

Here’s the simple truth, though. The difference seen between T-Mobile and AT&T is not going to show much variance in everyday use, even if AT&T retains its edge as more customers come online.

Both companies are offering superb download speeds, and one test in one location around a single tower is not, in any way, a good enough test to declare that one carrier is better. It’s still fun, though, I suppose.