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Ookla tests how fast and furious cellular networks are in the field. This week, it published an analysis of U.S. carriers’ 5G speed and coverage in Q2.
First, the lay of the land: As of July 8, the U.S. had 5G deployments in 6,087 cities and towns. T-Mobile boasts 94% of those deployments. AT&T has 237 deployments; Verizon has just 39.
- T-Mobile took the opportunity to troll Verizon in a press release.
- All in all, these numbers show we’re still in the early innings.
But looks can be deceiving. T-Mobile and AT&T are deploying 5G primarily using low-band spectrum, while Verizon is focused on just the high-band. The latter is way faster. In 5G tests, Ookla gave Verizon the top speed score of 871 (AT&T: 79, T-Mobile: 65).
B2C 🔽 The results don’t mean much for the average U.S. consumer right now, since most of us still use 4G/LTE phones (AT&T took the gold there, btw). But 5G is being built, and soon, they will come.
B2B 🔼 On the other hand, these early 5G networks will reshape the operations of entire industries. Read about how in our 5G guide.