After collecting and analyzing millions of 4G and 5G data points across the U.S. during the last five months, Global Wireless Solutions (GWS), a benchmarking, analysis and testing company, has concluded that AT&T has achieved the Best Network OneScore™ for 2021.
But, although AT&T and T-Mobile have both increased their service coverage, Verizon still has the most coverage.
GWS Best Network OneScore is based on voice, packet data, video, coverage and reliability metrics, which are combined into a single score that highlights the overall performance of each network. The testing includes results from 498 markets in all 50 states, representing 92 percent of the population. In addition, the importance of each metric is weighted toward elements of network performance that users said matters most.
Other Carriers Shine in Specific Tests
A deeper dive into the test results shows certain areas that gave each of the other carriers bragging rights. For example, T-Mobile logged the highest average throughputs during GWS’ network stress tests, followed by Verizon and then AT&T. Verizon was the fastest for small download tasks like receiving app-related content or loading web pages, while AT&T was the fastest for large download tasks like receiving photos and videos.
Verizon was rated first in uploading data, whether it was for small and large tasks like posting social media content, videos, and photos. AT&T and T-Mobile were second and third, respectively in both categories.
AT&T began to pull away from the other two carriers when it came to data reliability, with the highest success rate across the nation in completing data tasks. The carrier also came out on top in video streaming, with the best overall video streaming experience in terms of highest video quality and least amount of rebuffering, and it tied with Verizon for quickest loading time. Additionally, AT&T was first in three out of four metrics concerning voice call quality.
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