Across the U.S., Verizon and T-Mobile are practically neck and neck in terms of mobile network speeds and performance, according to the latest findings from OpenSignal’s crowdsourced monitoring.
OpenSignal also found that 4G speeds continue to rise, with typical speeds in many cities surpassing the national average. Of 36 cities the company studied from October through December, 25 now have one or more mobile service providers that deliver average LTE speeds faster than 20 Mbps (megabits per second).
The city with the fastest 4G speeds in the new study is Detroit, where both Verizon and T-Mobile average LTE download speeds of more than 25 Mbps. Minneapolis and Chicago also have at least one operator with average 4G speeds of 25 Mbps or greater. OpenSignal’s results are based on some 4.6 billion crowdsourced datapoints measured through its mobile app, which is being used by nearly 170,000 people across the U.S.
Verizon Retains Top 4G Availability — for Now
Compared to the results in its previous “State of Mobile Networks” report, released in August, OpenSignal found that Verizon had gained some ground over T-Mobile in its 4G speed rankings late last year.
“Verizon has clearly taken exception to T-Mobile’s recent attempts to steal the network spotlight,” the new report noted. “Verizon is fighting back with 4G upgrades of its own, and as our latest results in the U.S. show it’s doing so quite effectively. The two are again tied in network speeds in our tests, but T-Mobile continues to chip away at Verizon’s vaunted lead in 4G availability.”
Tests showed that Verizon currently offers the highest 4G availability rates, with those speeds available 88.2 percent of the time. T-Mobile, however, is only two percentage points behind, “the closest we’ve seen that difference,” OpenSignal said.
T-Mobile: ‘We’re Pushing Industry’
Overall, all four of the nation’s…