AT&T Named 2019's Fastest U.S. Mobile Network in Annual PCMag Carrier Showdown

[MacRumors]

AT&T is the fastest mobile network in the United States according to PCMag's latest annual mobile network comparison, which was released this morning.

For the test, PCMag employees drove through 30 cities and 25 states across the U.S. and ran more than 60,000 mobile speed tests to determine the speediest mobile network. The tests were conducted using Samsung Galaxy S10 devices on networks from AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint.

This year, AT&T edged out Verizon, the winner for the past five years, thanks to AT&T's focus on improving its LTE network in preparation for 5G technology. While all four networks improved overall on both speed and reliability compared to last year, AT&T improved a bit more than the others.

AT&T won or tied for first place in 15 of the 30 cities tested, and it tied or came out on top in all rural regions. AT&T was on top overall in the northwest, southwest, north central, and northeast, while Verizon won in the south central region and T-Mobile came out ahead in the southeast.

AT&T has been making improvements to its 4G network and has been labeling those 4G enhancements as "5GE," but really it's the same 4G LTE technology offered by other wireless companies as well. Still, these efforts to improve the 4G network ahead of 5G have led to overall speed boosts for AT&T customers.

The full results of PCMag's 2019 mobile carrier speed testing can be found over on the PCMag website.

Article Link: AT&T Named 2019's Fastest U.S. Mobile Network in Annual PCMag Carrier Showdown

 

[bbeagle]

Same as my results. When I lived in the SouthEast (North Carolina), I found T-Mobile to be the best. I now live in the NorthEast (New York) and find AT&T to be the best.

 

[ovo6]

Well I’m going to try t mobile for the 2020 iPhone , looking at that chart it’s 100% right , in Miami att coverage is gray but the internet is super slow on large crows , traffic and I’m on the unlimited plan , also 22gb limit is crap

 

[BootsWalking]

When AT&T is fast, it's fast. But when you're in a bad reception or congested area, no matter if it's in the middle of a big city, then you'll be cursing your iPhone like it was the 3G. I've called them countless times to see when they plan new towers in the areas I have trouble and they never have an answer for me.

 

[genegraygsm]

Very interesting. I would disagree a little bit with this map. SoCal's AT&T service is horrible. When I was in west TX, AT&T was king and had better service. I have a feeling this is based on the major cities skewing the number. Although, everywhere I've gone I always had a Verizon Signal. Maybe AT&T is finally figuring out their over congestion. We will see what happens with the new 5G network continues to roll out and measure those download speeds.

 

[WannaGoMac]

Where I am AT&T is the CRAPPIEST cell network...

 

[geenosr]

Wow....that 5G Evolution! I thought it was just marketing but I guess if you believe something with enough effort, maybe it comes true!

 

[munpip214]

Ha. Average 4G download speeds of 50Mbps+. I don't think I've ever seen higher than 30... Maybe they drove around at night right next to towers...

 

[Unity451]

Too bad their Customer Service is awful.

 

[alexandr]

interesting. when i switched from att to t-mo in nyc i didn't notice any difference. of course that was about 5 years ago, perhaps att has been at it...

 

[msama]

Living in South Central I'm happy to have verizon, when I visit the southwest not so much... so from my experience that map seems pretty accurate

 

[ovo6]

When AT&T is fast, it's fast. But when you're in a bad reception or congested area, no matter if it's in the middle of a big city, then you'll be cursing your iPhone like it was the 3G. I've called them countless times to see when they plan new towers in the areas I have trouble and they never have an answer for me.

Exactly I’m not even close to my 22gb throttling and I experience this while my friends with t mobile internet working fine

 

[macduke]

I mean, T-Mobile is more than capable when you consider the price, and it doesn't even throttle you until you get to 50GB. The difference isn't that big, especially on a phone. They're all so fast now that I consider price, data caps and coverage to be more important.

 

[sundog925]

Fast doesn't mean reliable.

 

[JetTester]

In TN, my experience has been that Verizon is significantly better than AT&T and Sprint. Perhaps that is changing but I haven’t yet seen evidence.

 

[ersan191]

I feel like the people running these tests just have no idea what they’re doing. The results are completely random every time.

 

[killawat]

Who here switched to ATT back when it was the exclusive iPhone carrier. I remember getting one of the original iPhones while still on t-mobile, unlocked with the devteam or ghotz tools. It didn't support everything out of the box on the tmo network, but tmo support guys had figured out how to work with jailbroken iPhones. I finally went to ATT for the 3gs and am too lazy to switch now. Verizon must be kicking themselves for not launching first.

 

[Stryder541]

Too bad their Customer Service is awful.

I’ve had AT&T since the Cingular Wireless days and CS has gradually improved from god-awful to very good in the last three encounters. They truly seem to want to make you happy. Competition? I don’t know.

 

[k1121j]

Only 30 cities in 25 states hardly a representation of the country. I have ATT and love em but geez who are we fooling here with these stats.

 

[jshort]

Fast doesn't mean reliable.

Also what about actually using your phone as a phone and talking on it with your mouth.. Verizon wins that most everywhere in the Southeast in my experience. T-Mobile is terrible at that in the south and rural areas nationally.

 

[Plutonius]

In my experience, the carrier speeds vary between locations.

I'm sure there are some locations where even Sprint comes out on top .

 

[tnkrmdc]

Verizon has good coverage where I live. AT&T crappy coverage. T-Mobile and Sprint practically has no coverage. Speed tests don’t really matter.

 

[Apple_Robert]

That is all academic. What is important, is the quality of coverage for an individual, where he or she resides and traverses.

 

[biglipps66]

Having both AT&T and Verizon phones, Verizon is hands down insanely more reliable and faster in Los Angeles and the surrounding areas.

 

[GoodWheaties]

When AT&T is fast, it's fast. But when you're in a bad reception or congested area, no matter if it's in the middle of a big city, then you'll be cursing your iPhone like it was the 3G. I've called them countless times to see when they plan new towers in the areas I have trouble and they never have an answer for me.

I’ve had the same experience here. In my area most people I know keep LTE turned off because it is far slower than 4G. Like literally almost nothing will even load with LTE on.