Independent speed-testing medium, Ookla, announced its Q1 2021 findings yesterday naming the fastest in a variety of categories such as carrier speeds, chipsets, and the regions and cities with the quickest download rates.
Ookla’s Speedtest Intelligence® revealed T-Mobile was the fastest mobile operator in the United States during Q1 2021 with a Speed Score™ of 50.21 on modern chipsets. AT&T was second and Verizon Wireless third. Ookla noted that this is the first quarter it was reporting on the country as a whole, rather than using competitive geographies.
AT&T was found to be the fastest operator in 33 of the 100 most populous cities in the U.S. during Q1 2021. T-Mobile was the fastest provider in 15 cities during Q1 2021 and Verizon Wireless was fastest in 14.
AT&T was also found to be the fastest provider in 30 states during Q1 2021. T-Mobile was fastest in 11 states during the same period according to the report. GCI and Verizon Wireless were each fastest in one state during Q1 2021. Results were too close to call in eight states. The report showed St. Paul, Minnesota was the fastest median mobile download speed among the 100 most populous cities in the U.S. during Q1 2021 at 69.57 Mbps. Jersey City, New Jersey was second; Washington, D.C. third; Baltimore, Maryland fourth and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania fifth.
With handset manufacturers, Ookla examined combined performance by major cell phone manufacturers and found that devices from OnePlus had the fastest median download speed in the U.S. during Q1 2021 at 50.79 Mbps. Samsung followed at 43.74 Mbps. Apple was third at 40.91 Mbps, LG fourth (34.70 Mbps) and Google fifth (32.60 Mbps). Ookla said It should be noted that OnePlus has fewer older devices and as of Q1 2021 there is not yet a commercially available 5G-capable Google device.
Chipsets: Looking at five of the fastest chipsets in the U.S., Ookla found that devices using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X55 5G again had the fastest median download speed during Q1 2021 at 66.63 Mbps. Snapdragon chipsets filled out the rest of the list, with devices using the Snapdragon 888 5G showing a median download speed of 64.63 Mbps, devices using the Snapdragon 865 showing 56.50 Mbps, devices using the Snapdragon 765G 5G showing 50.22 Mbps, and devices using the Snapdragon 855+ showing 49.76 Mbps.
At the state level, the District of Columbia again showed the fastest median mobile download speed in the U.S. during Q1 2021 at 67.42 Mbps, a 1.7 percent decrease from the quarter prior. Delaware was second, New Jersey third, Rhode Island fourth and New York fifth.
Mississippi again had the slowest median download speed during Q1 2021, followed by Wyoming, West Virginia, Iowa and Vermont.
Stockton, California again had the slowest median mobile download speed among the U.S.’s most populous cities during Q1 2021. Laredo, Texas was second slowest; Garland, Texas third; Lubbock, Texas fourth and Fresno, California fifth slowest.
Reader Interactions