Report Tracks Continued Advancements in Competitive 5G Market

On April 15, RootMetrics released a report titled "Checking in on 5G progress in 2021: Who’s currently leading the 5G race?" The report compares availability and performance for 5G (and 4G LTE) mobile broadband services among the three major wireless providers here in the early part of 2021. And it tracks the progress of those providers since the latter part of 2020. In its report, RootMetrics included the following high-level findings: 

• AT&T impressed at multiple levels during testing so far in 1H 2021, with broad 5G availability, strong speeds, and great 5G reliability. AT&T also delivered the fastest 5G experience across three key speed metrics in the most cities of any carrier (see page 12 for details). 
• T-Mobile improved on its already widespread 5G availability and clocked much faster 5G speeds compared to those in 2H 2020. In 2020, the carrier’s 5G speeds were relatively slow, but T-Mobile’s speeds took a huge step forward in 1H 2021. That improvement was largely due to the carrier’s increased usage of mid-band spectrum across the first 45 markets tested in 1H 2021. 
• Verizon, which launched its nationwide 5G in the fall of 2020, showed incredibly fast progress in improving its 5G availability. The carrier delivered excellent 5G reliability, with 5G speeds generally similar to those of T-Mobile. 

RootMetrics report contains informative descriptions of the locations and characteristics of big three mobile broadband service providers. Its reported finding on median speeds for different providers in different regions and rankings are interesting as well. 

At the same time, it should be remembered that the report is based on a snapshot of a market in motion. The report provides clear evidence of the market's competitiveness and we can expect continued improvements in next-generation mobile broadband service availability and performance as more recently-auctioned spectrum is put into use and more physical infrastructure is deployed or upgraded. And don't forget that cable wireless entrants Spectrum Wireless (Charter) and Xfinity Mobile (Comcast) are continuing to make inroads in the mobile broadband market, while DISH Network is preparing to launch its own nationwide 5G network.