The fastest mobile services have been ranked, and there’s a clear winner

For as long as the industry has existed, mobile carriers have been competing to offer the biggest and fastest mobile network. You can find yearly stats on the big players' speeds since the 3G era. Well, testing hasn’t stopped, and carriers have continued to expand and beef up their networks to get faster download speeds, especially since they could soon be competing with satellite internet providers like Starlink.

So, what is the fastest mobile network in 2025?

Ookla, the company behind the popular internet speed testing service Speedtest, has published new stats measuring network speed for the first half of 2025. And the new Speedtest Connectivity Report contains very good news for T-Mobile customers.

(Disclosure: Ookla and Mashable are owned by the same parent company, Ziff Davis.)

T-Mobile has the fastest mobile network

Per Ookla, T-Mobile’s speeds are heads and shoulders above its competition. Based on download speeds, upload speeds, and other metrics, Ookla assigns a “speed score” to carriers. T-Mobile scored 74.45 through June 2025. The next closest carrier was Verizon at 65.72, while AT&T scored 63.16. In short, the competition for the first half of 2005 wasn’t particularly close. T-Mobile clearly won. In fact, in addition to the naming T-Mobile the fastest network, Ookla also crowned T-Mobile with the best overall mobile network and the best 5G network.

T-Mobile collected its win based on a variety of metrics, but most of all was its consistency. T-Mobile was the fastest carrier overall in 46 states and Washington, D.C., while Verizon only had the fastest speeds in North Dakota. Per Ookla, the results in the remaining four states were “too close to call.” AT&T wasn't the fastest carrier in any U.S. state or territory. 

T-Mobile also reigned supreme in most large U.S. cities, although AT&T took the top spot for Chicago, while Verizon Wireless scored highest in San Francisco.

T-Mobile claims back-to-back-to-back wins

These results shouldn’t be terribly surprising. T-Mobile’s network speed has been at the top of the stack for a few years now across multiple testing methods. In 2021, PCMag drove 10,000 miles and tested all three major networks, concluding that T-Mobile was the fastest. T-Mobile has carried the title of fastest mobile network ever since, including in Ookla’s 2023 report as well as its 2024 report.

Verizon has the best mobile network for streaming

Verizon was the second-fastest mobile network, according to Ookla. And while T-Mobile nabbed the best overall spot, Ookla named Verizon the best mobile network for streaming. Verizon also received the highest 5G streaming score.

So, if you're interested purely in speed, T-Mobile wins out. However, Verizon has a lot to offer customers interested in streaming video on their devices.

AT&T is the fastest ISP

Unfortunately for AT&T customers, the carrier didn't win any awards in the lastest Ookla rankings. However, AT&T did rank highest in a related category. In the same report, the AT&T Fiber network was named the top-rated internet service provider overall. It was also named the fastest ISP, with the highest median download speed. AT&T also ranked highest among all ISPs in the "Consumer Sentiment" category.

So, for customers who often connect to WiFi, AT&T does offer some advantages.