T-Mobile tops Verizon, AT&T in key network rankings

Having been a T-Mobile customer for roughly 20 years, I can reasonably say that I agree with what Billy Bob Thornton said in his recent commercial for the wireless company.

"This friend said T-Mobile's network was a little dodgy. His words. A lot of things used to be dodgy," the actor shares in the ad. "GPS used to be my gut feeling. But things change."

It's fair to say that for a lot of years, T-Mobile customers joined because of prices, not because of the quality of the network.

For many years, as a subscriber, I suffered from whole parts of the country where my phone went dead. My family home in New Hampshire, for example, might offer up a single bar, but never any more.

That's not the case anymore, which Thornton touts in the ad.

"You can switch to T-Mobile from your phone in just 15 minutes. And see what it means to have America's best network," he added.

Calling yourself America's Best Network leaves room open for argument, but T-Mobile recently shared some hard data from Opensignal's latest U.S. Mobile Network Experience Report, which backs up its claim.

T-Mobile claims the crown

First, it's worth noting that "America's Best Network" is a subjective claim that depends upon what you consider valuable. T-Mobile makes its case based on parts of the OpenSignal report.

Network rankings like these are based on millions of real-world tests collected from users’ phones over time, not controlled lab conditions. Firms such as OpenSignal, Ookla, RootMetrics, and J.D. Power weigh factors including speed, reliability, consistency, and availability differently, which is why carriers can all point to data that support a "best network" claim.

"The first of two biannual reports, with data for this collected between Sep 01 - Nov 29, provides a detailed look at the current state of U.S. mobile experience, ranking T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T across a range of mobile experience and 5G metrics," T-Mobile shared in an email to TheStreet.

Top findings from OpenSignal include: 

• For the second report in a row, T-Mobile wins outright for both overall Reliability Experience and Consistent Quality. Consistent Quality is the company's measure of network capability to support common mobile application requirements at a level that is "good enough."
• 5G users on T-Mobile have access to a 5G signal the most often, and as such, T-Mobile leads for 5G Availability.
• T-Mobile’s 5G network continues to experience the fastest 5G connections in the U.S. As a result, T-Mobile wins the 5G Download Speed award outright with a score of 249.0Mbps and a lead of 65Mbps over second-placed AT&T's 184.3Mbps. Verizon comes in third with a score of 176.6Mbps.

T-Mobile, however, did not win by every metric.

• Verizon leads for both 5G Video Experience and 5G Live Video Experience, with scores of 71.4 and 73.4 out of 100, respectively. In practice, this means users on Verizon can, on average, stream video at 1080p or better, with satisfactory loading times and little stalling.
• AT&T wins for overall Time on Network: As in our last report, our users on AT&T spend the most time with a mobile broadband connection. AT&T users have access to a 3G or better connection 99.6% of the time, meaning AT&T retains its narrow lead over second-placed Verizon, where users spend 99.5% of the time on a 3G or better connection.

Of the 16 rated categories, T-Mobile won 12 of them, including sweeping all five "Overall Experience" ratings.

Verizon stakes its own "best network" claim

Best network depends an awful lot on which company does the ratings and which metrics are used. It's a lot like one NFL team claiming it has the top defense because it allowed the fewest points, while another claims that title because it gave up the least yards.

Verizon takes a shot at T-Mobile (without naming the brand) in a press release about a different rating.

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"In an industry filled with competing claims, Verizon continues to stand above the rest. While others may highlight specific metrics or short-term reports, Verizon’s wireless network performance is a matter of consistent, long-term leadership," the company shared in a press release.

The wireless carrier touted that it has won 35 consecutive J.D. Power awards for Network Quality and while delivering RootMetrics' best 5G experience and RootScore Award for best overall network performance in more than 100 cities tested across the country.

AT&T also claims to be the best

AT&T also stakes its claim to the "best network" title using data it says support that case. The numbers come from RootMetrics, which also provided some of the data used by Verizon.

The wireless carrier offered data from both RootMetrics and Ookla's annual speedtest awards:

• AT&T earned top wins from RootMetrics, including Best Overall Wireless Network Performance, Most Reliable Wireless Network, Fastest Wireless Network, and Best Call Performance in the U.S.
• Ookla Speedtest also recognized AT&T Fiber for Fastest Internet and Top-Rated Internet nationwide. Despite competitors’ claims, the facts show that AT&T is set apart from other providers, with a wireless network that covers 300,000 more square miles than T-Mobile's network.

What's clear as a longtime T-Mobile user who has also tested both AT&T and Verizon, is that "best" still very much depends on personal-use cases. T-Mobile, however, has grown from "dodgy" to viable competitor, in terms of both service and price.

T-Mobile has been growing

"We are even more convicted in our future than ever before, as we continue taking profitable share through wireless, through broadband, and smart adjacencies, investing to defend our network leadership, while further improving network perception, and effecting a digital transformation — all of which will allow the Un-carrier to widen our margin of differentiation," new T-Mobile CEO Srini Gopalan shared in the company's third-quarter earnings release.

The company also shared some key growth metrics.

• Total postpaid net customer additions of 2.3 million, best-ever and best in industry
• Postpaid phone net customer additions of 1.0 million, the highest Q3 in over a decade.
• Postpaid net account additions of 396 thousand, up 26% year over year.
• Total broadband net customer additions of 560,000, up 34% year over year, including 506,000 5G broadband net customer additions, up 22% year over year, and 54 thousand fiber net customer additions.

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