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T-Mobile Named Fastest US Mobile Carrier by New Wirefly Report (phonedog.com)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the internet-speeds dept.

T-Mobile offered the fastest internet speed to subscribers between Q1 and Q2 of 2017 (which ended in June), according to the Wirefly Speed Test, which combed through thousands of test results made using its service. T-Mobile scored highest in overall speed while Verizon ended up with a close second spot, Wirefly, which doesn't require Java or Flash for its tests, added. AT&T and Sprint rounded out the ranking at third and fourth, respectively, the report added, which was done in collaboration with SourceForge. T-Mobile also topped the chart for offering the fastest mobile download speed. An anonymous user writes: T-Mobile offered 22.18 Mbps download speed, while Verizon Wireless ended up with another close second with 21.45 Mbps download. AT&T came in with an average download speed of 17.00 Mbps, and Sprint was trailing all with 15.76 Mbps. Verizon finished with the fastest average upload speed at 16.06 Mbps. You can read the full report here.

9 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. They are all fast enough for me by b0bby · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Speedwise, they are all fast enough for me - in fact I'm happy with my throttled Cricket service (8Mbps). I'm more interested in coverage, and I found AT&T's to be better for me when I switched from T-Mobile. Both were better coverage than Sprint for me too, but I think Verizon is better yet. I'm just unwilling to pay the Verizon premium.

    1. Re:They are all fast enough for me by silverkniveshotmail. · · Score: 2

      Cheap prepaid services like Cricket and Virgin are fine in urban areas but they don't offer any roaming at all. When I drove from Tacoma to Detroit with Virgin I went days without service.

    2. Re:They are all fast enough for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Cheap prepaid services like Cricket and Virgin are fine in urban areas but they don't offer any roaming at all. When I drove from Tacoma to Detroit with Virgin I went days without service.

      Cricket IS AT&T only prepaid and throttled max speed. Cricket will work anywhere that AT&T will.

  2. First Reply by jfdavis668 · · Score: 3, Funny

    -- Posted from an Apple //c

  3. Fast means nothing by OzPeter · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you don't have coverage where you want it then it don't mean shit how fast your network is.

    T-Mobile .. I'm looking at you. My house is in a dead spot surrounded by T-Mobile towers.

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    1. Re:Fast means nothing by jbmartin6 · · Score: 2

      If your house is surrounded by towers and you get no signal, isn't the problem with your house?

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    2. Re:Fast means nothing by Tailhook · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You might want to look at your phone. T-mobile has been investing in its LTE network, but many phones can't operate on the newer LTE band frequencies. I just replaced my wife's phone with a Motorola g5 plus because it has a new radio and gets these LTE bands. It was a huge improvement over the Nexus 4 she was using. Lookup your phone's LTE band capabilities and see if that isn't your problem.

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    3. Re:Fast means nothing by Tailhook · · Score: 3, Informative

      Firmware changes won't do it. The phone needs the right RF filters to function on these the expanded LTE bands. Just because you can get LTE firmware doesn't mean you'll get the benefit of newer frequencies. For instance, Band 66 is wider than Band 4, so you need a transceiver with filters adapted to the expanded band. Band 12 is a relatively low frequency, which provides long range, but is far out of band for the filters in older devices. Another issue is VoLTE support (voice over LTE); it's not available on every device yet whether it's physically possible or not; Nexus 4 can't do it no matter what firmware you load.

      The Moto g5 plus is certified by T-mobile to function on all of their bands and support VoLTE as well. That makes it a good budget phone choice if you're on T-mobile.

      T-mobile doesn't have the capital to compete with Verizon et al. on the traditional frequencies so they've invested in newer frequency bands as the FCC has auctioned them. You need to pay close attention to your phone's capabilities if you care about coverage and performance with T-mobile. Even flagship phones available today can't get the full benefits; you have to investigate the device.

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  4. Anecdata by rsborg · · Score: 2

    If you don't have coverage where you want it then it don't mean shit how fast your network is.

    T-Mobile .. I'm looking at you. My house is in a dead spot surrounded by T-Mobile towers.

    Just a counter anecdote - my house gets great coverage for T-Mobile whereas Verizon is impossible and AT&T is spotty. I've been in city centers (LV, BOS, NY) where I had signal on TMO LTE while my VZ and ATT coworkers had none.

    Driving cross country is about the only place where other networks beat TMO but then again, out of 3 networks we had none driving through southern Oregon.

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