For all their back and forth about who’s got the better network, Verizon and T-Mobile each received some good news and bad news via the Ookla Speedtest data over the weekend.
According to the tests, Verizon “rocked” mobile data speeds at the Super Bowl in Miami thanks to 5G. It came in 143.7% faster for mobile download speeds than second-place T-Mobile when considering Speedtest results over all technologies. Sprint had the third fastest mean download speed in this category and AT&T came in fourth.
In terms of the mean download speed, T-Mobile had the fastest, clocking in at 66.35 Mbps on LTE. Sprint was second on LTE with a mean download speed of 56.16 Mbps, AT&T third at 39.18 Mbps and Verizon fourth at 30.67 Mbps, according to Ookla.
RELATED: Verizon plays up 5G for Super Bowl
It’s notable since Verizon was advertising on Super Bowl Sunday how much better its LTE network is compared to T-Mobile’s 5G and T-Mobile responded with various counter assertions and a blog from outgoing CEO John Legere ranting about how Verizon chose the wrong 5G strategy with millimeter wave, leading to its having spotty 5G coverage and service. T-Mobile is using 600 MHz for its 5G low-band coverage layer.
“Verizon bet wrong on 5G, and they know it. They’re stuck. They’re desperate … because really what is the Verizon brand except ‘network’? If they lose that, they’re toast,” Legere wrote. “Now they’re trying to advertise their way out of a crappy strategy.”
Conversely, Verizon enlisted the comedian Jenny Slate for a “person-on-the-street” type ad with tests in New York City showing Verizon’s 4G network was faster than T-Mobile’s 5G. “So much faster,” she exclaims.
Of course, Sprint executives were thrilled their home town Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl. Sprint’s network showed the lowest 5G latency in the Speedtest results. However, Verizon beat both T-Mobile and Sprint in the mean download speed over 5G tests while coming in last for both mean upload speed over 5G and latency. T-Mobile showed the fastest mean upload speed over 5G.
RELATED: Editor’s Corner: Is Verizon losing its network advantage?
Last month, AT&T climbed to the top spot for fastest average 3G and 4G LTE download speeds in Opensignal’s rankings, overtaking T-Mobile and Verizon. On a nationwide basis AT&T jumped two spots, up from its third-place ranking in Opensignal’s July report, with users experiencing a significant 22% increase in download speeds over six months, from 22.5 Mbps to 27.5 Mbps in the latest report.