T-Mobile absolutely crushes rivals in new internet experience tests

Opensignal conducted a study to determine which US fixed broadband providers are the best for users. The analytics company looked at four metrics — Download Speed, Upload Speed, Consistent Quality (whether a network is good enough to support common use cases like playing games) and Video Experience — to determine which companies offer the best experience. The first set of tests focused on the five Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with the widest nationwide footprint: AT&T, Spectrum (Charter), T-Mobile, Verizon and Xfinity (Comcast).

They included various technologies including cable, DSL, FWA and fiber. like CNET notes, this may be one reason why cable companies did well in many tests, since while Spectrum and Xfinity offer only cable Internet, mobile network operators offer a variety of services, some of which are not very good.

For the second part of the report, Opensignal conducted head-to-head comparisons to see how each company competes against its direct rivals based on the extent of each provider’s shared coverage areas.

The long and short of it is that Xfinity is the best when it comes to consistent video quality and experience. Spectrum was crowned the winner in the Download Speed ​​category, while AT&T came out on top for Upload Speed.

Charter and Comcast came out as winners in most head-to-head comparisons Verizon, T-Mobileand AT&T. T-Mobile lost for Verizon in all head-to-head matches.

Since broadband service providers offer service in different areas and in any given area, consumers may have limited options, Opensignal also compared the experience between companies only in the areas where both offer service.

For each test, a company was compared to its direct competitors, which were selected based on the percentage of common areas where the two had a presence. The overlap percentage shows how many households a rival can reach within the area served by the leading provider compared to the number of homes that can be reached by the company being analyzed. So, for example, if the overlap is 52 percent, it means that the competitor can also reach 52 percent of the homes passed by the leading provider.

A “Win” in this category means that the company being analyzed performed better than its competitors.

Spectrum hit AT&T, VerizonAND T-Mobile for download speeds, consistent quality and video experience in countries where all companies offer service.

Xfinity also beat AT&T, VerizonAND T-Mobile in the Download Speed ​​and Video Experience categories. AT&T owned Xfinity, Spectrum, T-MobileAND Verizon in the upload speed category.

neither Verizon neither T-Mobile completely dominated either category, with the former beating the Un-carrier in all head-to-head comparisons.