What’s the fastest wireless network in America?
For the second year in a row, the crown goes to Verizon – at least according to a large study from PCMag.
The publication, which claims to have “ran more test cycles than ever before: 131,000 cycles over 30 cities and thousands of miles of driving,” says that Verizon delivered the fastest speeds and overall best coverage. Out of the 30 major cities tested, Verizon won 16 of them. Verizon also won all the rural/suburban areas.
Verizon scored an 89/100 on the speed index, offering an average LTE download speed of 19.1 Mbps. T-Mobile placed second with an 84/100. AT&T came in third with an 80/100.
And Sprint brought up the real with a 69/100 score and a 12.7 Mbps average LTE download speed. Check out PCMag’s chart:
When it came to 3G speeds, T-Mobile won.
But according to the study, all of the major four networks stepped up their game. From PCMag:
To some extent, everyone’s a winner, because heightened competition is the big story of our sixth annual Fastest Mobile Networks testing. For the past six years, Verizon and AT&T have traded off winning the national title, largely because of far superior high-speed coverage when compared with Sprint and T-Mobile. But T-Mobile emerged as a force to be reckoned with last year, and now, for the first time, Sprint is competitive. The results show that the big four carriers didn’t need to merge to succeed. They’re doing just fine.
In the six years they’ve been doing this, 2015 provided the “most competitive wireless landscape” ever, they said.
Image via Verizon News, Twitter