T-Mobile Was the Fastest U.S. Cellular Provider in Q1 2022

T-Mobile provided the fastest cellular service in the United States during the first quarter of 2022, according to Ookla. For those unfamiliar, Ookla is the company behind the popular Speedtest bandwidth measurement service, and it regularly releases reports on connectivity speeds.

The median T-Mobile download speed was 117.83Mb/s on modern chipsets, while Verizon came in second with median download speeds of 62.62Mb/s, and AT&T placed third with 56.10Mb/s. T-Mobile's median connectivity speeds have increased since the fourth quarter of 2021, when it was measuring in at 90.65Mb/s.

When considering just 5G connectivity, T-Mobile again had the fastest median download speed at 191.12Mb/s, followed by Verizon at 107.25Mb/s and AT&T at 68.43Mb/s.

T-Mobile has the largest 5G network of the three carriers because it has used 600MHz low-band spectrum for 5G coverage across the United States. 5G coverage from AT&T and Verizon is more limited in availability at this time, but it can also hit higher maximum speeds in urban areas.

T-Mobile and Verizon tied for lowest median latency at 31 ms, with AT&T coming in at 34 ms. T-Mobile also won the top "consistency score" with 88.3 percent of results showing at least 5Mb/s download and 1Mb/s upload speeds. Verizon came in second at 84.6 percent and AT&T was third at 82.1 percent.

Minnesota, the District of Columbia, Rhode Island, Illinois, and New Jersey had some of the fastest median download and upload speeds in the United States during the quarter, with St. Paul, Minnesota winning out as the city with the fastest speeds (136.72Mb/s median download speeds).

Ookla's website has additional carrier-specific information about connectivity speeds in the United States, with details available in its full Q1 2022 report.