The United States has fallen to No. 55 in global LTE performance as speeds rise rapidly in other countries. The average download speed on U.S. 4G networks inched up to 10Mbps from June through August, according to research company OpenSignal. That was an improvement from 9Mbps in the previous quarter, but 43 was the U.S. previous global ranking.
The good news is that U.S. coverage is competitive. The U.S. was one of the first countries with commercial LTE service when Verizon Wireless launched its network in late 2010. But other countries that adopted the system later started with better technology, and some have secured more frequencies or rolled out enhancements that U.S. carriers haven’t embraced as much, OpenSignal said.
New Zealand scored the highest average speed in the quarter with 36Mbps, but other countries like South Korea and Singapore also kept getting faster. Korea Telecom’s Olleh provided not only one of the fastest networks in the world but also delivered an active LTE signal 96 percent of the time. The average LTE speed in South Korea is now 29Mbps, up by 4Mbps, and in Singapore it’s 33Mbps, up by 5Mbps.
While the U.S., Sweden and Japan are falling behind in speed, they are among the top countries in the world in terms of coverage, according to OpenSignal. In the U.S., time coverage and speed varied widely among the major carriers. Verizon was at 84 percent time coverage, followed closely by AT&T at 81 percent, but Sprint hit just 64 percent coverage. T-Mobile USA fell in between with 77 percent. T-Mobile and Verizon tied for speed at 12Mbps, AT&T averaged 8Mbps and Sprint came in at 6Mbps. None of them went up more than 1Mbps between the second and third quarters.
The fact that LTE is nearly five years old in the U.S. may actually drag down its speed score due to a lack of upgrading, OpenSignal says. On the other hand, they are starting to see a big bump in 4G speeds in many countries, and that’s likely due to network upgrades. The results are based on readings from more than 300,000 users worldwide.
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