Verizon is catching up to T-Mobile in Speedtest's 5G rankings

Last time we caught up with Speedtest’s ranking of all three major 5G networks in the U.S., T-Mobile’s lead was so massive that it didn’t seem fair. Three months later, and that’s changed…a bit.

The latest quarterly network speed report from Speedtest (Note: Speedtest and Mashable are owned by the same parent company, Ziff Davis) dropped Monday. For the most part, it confirmed what we already knew: T-Mobile still has the fastest and most widely available 5G network in the country. But this time, at least in terms of median download speed, the gap between first and second place has shrunk:

1. T-Mobile: 191.12Mbps (up from 187.12Mbps)

2. Verizon: 107.25Mbps (up from 78.52Mbps)

3. AT&T: 68.43Mbps (down from 68.82Mbps)

That, dear readers, is solid evidence that Verizon’s new “C-Band” 5G spectrum that it turned on in January is producing results. What that means is Verizon basically added another lane to its metaphorical 5G "highway." In doing so, Verizon made its 5G network more powerful, thus increasing its median download speed. 

However…there’s still plenty of catching up to do if either Verizon or AT&T want to match T-Mobile’s 5G offerings. For instance, 49.4 percent and 28.2 percent of devices maintained steady connections to AT&T and Verizon’s networks, respectively. To put that in perspective, 65 percent of T-Mobile users had reliable 5G connections. 

So while it’s great that Verizon’s speeds have gone up, that doesn’t help much if people can’t reliably use the network to begin with. Even T-Mobile’s market-leading network isn’t doing much for 35 percent of its customers. So if you’re waiting for 5G to change your life, patience is going to be your best friend.