Every cellular carrier makes lofty claims about their network’s speed and coverage. If AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile are all touting the capabilities of their mobile plans, how do you know which one is actually worth your money? Independent, third-party testing data tells the real story. Ookla, the company behind Speedtest.net, has a research arm called RootMetrics that conducted over three million independent tests on the AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile networks in the first half of 2026 — and the results are in.
If you were hoping for one of AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile to decisively come out on top, I have bad news. While one carrier crushed RootMetrics’ download speed tests, all three carriers earned at least one “RootScore Award.” In a surprising twist, the carrier with the fastest median download speeds didn’t end up winning a share of RootMetrics’ overall performance RootScore Award.
T-Mobile’s download speeds look unreal
Compared to AT&T and Verizon, T-Mobile is the clear winner
Ookla’s RootScores are calculated using a proprietary algorithm, and we don’t know exactly what goes into them. However, the report also lists median download speeds for each carrier, and those are easy to compare. If you’re wondering why the download speeds use the median instead of the average, this is to avoid the data being impacted by outliers on the high and low end of the spectrum. The carrier with the highest median download speeds in the first half of 2026 was T-Mobile, with a staggering 392Mbps result.
T-Mobile led the pack, with Verizon not too far behind and AT&T falling short. Verizon’s median download speed was 302Mbps, while AT&T’s median download speed was 228.7Mbps. Every carrier’s median download speed improved compared to its results from the second half of 2025. AT&T and T-Mobile saw marginally faster speeds, but Verizon took a major leap.
Verizon’s median download speed result for H2 2025 was 226.5 Mbps, putting it closer to AT&T than T-Mobile in terms of speed. Verizon’s download speed increase of 75.5Mbps half-over-half was more than that of T-Mobile and AT&T combined. Put simply, this was a major half for Verizon. T-Mobile has been winning speed tests for a while — and it still comes out decisively on top — but Verizon is starting to catch up.
AT&T is making moves to bolster its 5G capabilities, too. As Ookla analyst Mike Dano explains in the report, AT&T bought extra 3.45GHz licenses from US Cellular, and this allowed about one-third of RootMetrics’ AT&T 5G samples to fall between 140MHz and 180MHz. This led to higher median download speeds by up to 100Mbps at times. In other words, the speed race between AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile is as competitive as ever.
AT&T and Verizon are staying relevant
The legacy carriers continue to provide great overall experiences
Believe it or not, T-Mobile’s excellent speed test results weren’t enough to earn it the overall performance RootScore Award. In fact, it came in a distant third place. Before we get into the RootScore Award results, you should know a bit about what they mean. Here’s how RootMetrics explains the awards on its methodology page:
RootScores offer a simple way to translate thousands or millions of complex data points into clear and easy-to-understand marks of performance. RootScores are designed to reflect a consumer’s experience of network performance and are scaled from 0-100. It’s simple: the higher the score, the better the performance.
Seems simple enough, right? The higher the RootScore, the better the category performance. The more RootScore Awards earned, the better the network. In this context, Verizon came away as the best overall network. Looking at the RootScores themselves, the gap between Verizon’s 98.4, AT&T’s 98.3, and T-Mobile’s 97.3 overall scores seems small. However, four of the categories ended in a tie.
Verizon ended up with the most outright category wins with three: network responsiveness, data performance, and video performance. AT&T won the call performance category, and T-Mobile didn’t earn a single outright win. Pretty surprising for the carrier that dominated the speed tests. AT&T and Verizon each won a share of the overall performance award.
But Verizon showed stellar performance in other areas. It earned both the best 5G experience and most reliable 5G awards, showing its strength in 5G performance. It also earned the most Metro Area RootScore Awards of any carrier, topping 200+ Mbps median download speeds in 123 out of 125 selected markets. This isn’t surprising, considering Verizon’s proven strength in 5G performance in urban areas.
The State RootScore Awards paint a similar picture. Verizon has the lead, with AT&T not too far behind. Again, T-Mobile is a distant third, despite its prowess in speed. The category breakdown quickly explains why. T-Mobile is the leader in speed, but its network reliability and calling performance severely drags it down. T-Mobile is the only carrier to post single-digit RootScore Award tallies, and that’s why it loses to AT&T and Verizon overall.
T-Mobile has the lead, but AT&T and Verizon keep climbing
AT&T and Verizon’s half-over-half improvements are impressive
Before diving into RootMetrics’ test results for the first half of 2026, I knew T-Mobile would come out on top in speed tests. T-Mobile has been the fastest nationwide cellular carrier in the U.S. for some time now. However, I didn’t expect how well Verizon and AT&T still performed in other crucial categories. I certainly didn’t see Verizon and AT&T beating T-Mobile on the overall stage, but that’s exactly what happened.
- Compatibility
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SIM and eSIM
- 5G
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5G and 5G UC
- Premium data
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Prepaid and postpaid
T-Mobile is a primary US carrier with industry-leading 5G coverage and fast nationwide speeds. Prices vary based on subscription tiers and the number of phone lines tied to a plan. T-Mobile also owns Metro by T-Mobile, Mint Mobile, and Assurance.