Fastest wireless network 2020: It’s not even close

By Tom's Guide Staff
last updated

Who's got the best LTE network? We tested eight carriers to find out

Houston: There's No Problem for Verizon

Verizon and T-Mobile had a Lone Star State showdown, but in the end, Big Red finished on top in Houston, thanks to better LTE download speeds.

Verizon posted the best average download speed of 55.4 Mbps, well ahead of the other carriers. AT&T and Sprint both posted 19.5 Mbps averages, while T-Mobile was just behind at 19.2 Mbps. It was in average upload speed where T-Mobile emerged from the crowd, posting a 22.8 Mbps result that topped all other carriers in Houston.

But when it came time to download Discord, Verizon once again asserted itself, pulling off the task in an average of 12 seconds. That's 22 seconds better than T-Mobile's average time.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Row 0 - Cell 0 Average Download Speed, HoustonAverage Upload Speed, HoustonAverage App Download Time (Min:Sec)
Verizon55.4 Mbps16.5 Mbps0:12
AT&T19.5 Mbps20.8 Mbps0:37
Sprint19.5 Mbps2.4 Mbps0:32
T-Mobile19.2 Mbps22.8 Mbps0:34
Boost12.1 Mbps1.6 Mbps1:01
Straight Talk11.4 Mbps15.5 Mbps0:32
Cricket7.3 Mbps7.3 Mbps1:24
Metro3.8 Mbps6.5 Mbps3:38

Cricket once again had the slowest average download speeds, while Sprint and Boost struggled with upload speeds. But Metro by T-Mobile's performance also raised eyebrows, as it was unable to benefit from the fast speeds of its parent network. Metro struggled with our app download test in Space City, where it couldn't complete the download in less than 5 minutes in four of our six test sites.

Our results reflect an average of five Speedtest.net tests conducted at six sites around Houston. At each test site, we also downloaded the 40MB Discord app from the Google Play store onto Galaxy S9 phones tied to each carrier.

Verizon may have won narrowly in Houston, but it enjoyed a much bigger margin nationwide. Big Red captured the fastest wireless network title, topping both AT&T and T-Mobile. Check out our full national results.

Looking Ahead to 5G: While our speed testing focuses entirely on LTE, the reality is that carriers are beginning to launch 5G service in some markets. Houston now has 5G service from Sprint. We have yet to do any 5G testing in Houston, though we did try out Sprint's faster network in nearby Dallas.

Tom's Guide Staff
Tom's Guide Staff

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14 Comments Comment from the forums
  • seoguy
    Archived comments are found here: http://www.tomsguide.com/forum/id-2724742/verizon-wins-2015-nationwide-showdown.html
    Reply
  • danbfree
    2016? Your tests are from September of 2015 and despite not being that "old", things have changed a lot since then and again, is not from 2016. Bad clickbait headline!
    Reply
  • Mike_310
    i call BS. Verizon is only 5% faster than tmobile yet the same app downloads 40% faster on Verizon?
    Reply
  • chrisfo1
    You should change what speeds were actually being measured. Verizon does not have 24Megabytes per second download. That is insane cellular data speeds and is very very misleading. Those numbers are most likely Megabits* speed, not Megabytes. Mbps stands for Megabits. 1 Megabyte = 6 Megabits. When you download those speed test apps or go to websites testing your internet speed, you are testing the Megabits. So you should be seeing 144Mbps when you measure your speeds on the websites and apps. I am very certain you are not seeing such speeds via cell data lol. Not even close actually.
    Reply
  • veladem
    @CHRISFO1 I easily get 50-100Mbps via Ookla on Straight Talk/AT&T. If you'd like a screen cap I can easily get you a few tested over the last half year or so.
    Reply
  • taylorh_9
    In San Jose, I can safely say that T-Mobile is easily 2-3x faster than Verizon in most places (we have both.) Some places Verizon is faster or as fast. However T-Mobile's coverage kind of stinks. It's either all or nothing and you get nothing far too frequently whereas Verizon can range from slow to fast, but it always works.
    So speed tests are interesting, but I'm really more interested in consistent good performance in the most places, not rockin' fast performance in spots. Based on my experience, that's how these two measure up.
    Despite that, I'm eyeing the day I can switch to T-Mobile. Sadly some places I currently need coverage (remote rural) T-Mobile simply has no signal whatsoever.
    Reply
  • flameout00
    Definitely depends on which part of the Country you are in. Maybe I'm just in a really great spot, but I get around 130 Mbps download and 15 upload (Sprint, Galaxy S7 Edge, Ookla speedtest app) and these results are fairly consistent
    Reply
  • PReed4962
    Cricket advertises their speed at 8Mbps - it is not meant to be as fast as AT&T - its also A LOT less expensive.
    Reply
  • Zuper_
    These tests are always meaningless. Verizon spends its money in cities. Sprint is hardly a national carrier, drive through flyover country with a sprint phone and you will be roaming on the verizon network most of the time.
    Reply
  • Chris_442
    I'm in North jersey and since my galaxy S8 got here last week I've been averaging download speeds on sprint btwn 35mbps to 45mbps with two tests this weekend as high as 67mbps. I drive for a living and those speeds have been pretty consistent across much of the urban/suburban NY metro area. Those speeds are twice as fast as what I was getting with my S6 five days ago. Maybe the new in phone antenna is the difference. Sprint has been trying to get manufacturers to build phones with the latest antenna for a while now and Samsung finally delivered. I'm sure Verizon had something to do with delaying advancement in technology especially by a competitor.
    Reply