America’s second-largest wireless service provider by subscribers is ranked first as fastest mobile internet provider in the US, for Q3in the latest quarterly analysis of download speeds conducted by Ookla, the company behind arguably the most popular such testing tool in the world.
In fact, the findings of this Q3 2019 report are based on consumer-initiated uses of the Speedtest app and web service, and although the exact sample size of the survey is kept under wraps, we’re fairly certain Ookla gathered an enormous amount of data between July and September.
Interestingly, Sprint, the nation’s fourth-largest carrier, came in second with the next highest speed score behind AT&T and ahead of both T-Mobile and Verizon.
Fastest mobile internet provider in the US and ranking:
AT&T: 35.17
Sprint: 31.84
T-Mobile: 31.36
Verizon: 29.42
After all, this is the same firm that collected measurements from more than 4 million unique mobile devices in the January – June timeframe to conclude AT&T was fastest among the nation’s big four carriers in the first half of the year as well. What’s interesting is that “Ma Bell” managed to extend its lead over the silver and bronze medalists in the Q3 rankings, boosting its average speed score from 32.91 to 35.17.
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After staying just two points behind the champ between January and June, T-Mobile is now trailing AT&T by almost double that number, despite marginally improving its own speed score from 30.94 to 31.36. Believe it or not, Magenta is actually outranked by Sprint as well after a pretty impressive jump from 28.15 to 31.84 for T-Mo’s potential future sister operator.
Shockingly, that leaves Verizon dead last in Ookla’s “big four” chart for the July – September timeframe after a small but notable speed score drop from 29.45 to 29.42. It looks like we’ll have to wait until the end of the year to see if Big Red manages to retain the “consistency” title won back in July. That’s a particularly important aspect for things like HD video streaming, when you need your download speeds to stay consistent more than you need them to break records at their peak.
In a release publicizing the win, AT&T said it’s increased network speeds by 43% year over year, reflecting network investments. Those include 4G LTE-Advanced technologies that have been added while AT&T continues to simultaneously upgrade radio access infrastructure at sites and add additional spectrum as build out its FirstNet public safety network.
