Carriers ranked by overall performance in the first half of 2015. From left to right: Verizon, AT&T,... [+]
RootMetrics released its biannual comprehensive report on wireless network performance yesterday -- and gave Forbes the state by state rankings for the first half of 2015. Verizon dominates the pack nationally, but good news: All carriers are providing better service.
Read to the end of this story for the monster infographic with your state's wireless network standings. The report measures the four top-line carriers; but second-tier carriers throughout the country use those networks to transmit your calls.
"Perhaps the biggest story is that all the carriers continue to improve, albeit in different ways," said Julie Dey, vice president of marketing at RootMetrics. "Verizon’s story is one of consistently strong performance. AT&T, which was already strong nationally, recorded the highest number of award gains on the metro level--and was the only carrier to increase award counts across across all metro categories.
"Sprint solidified its grasp on third place nationally, and jumped into a tie for second place in call performance nationally, its highest ever ranking in that category. The story for T-Mobile revolves around speed gains: it recorded median download speeds of 20 Mbps or faster in 45 out of the 125 markets, second only to Verizon’s total of 51."
That speed ranking is significant, Dey said.
"For context, consider that AT&T reached topline speeds--those exceeding 20 Mbps--in 11 markets and Sprint did so in none," she said.
For overall performance rankings, Verizon led the country, followed by AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile, and the same order held true for reliability and call performance. For network speeds and data performance, T-Mobile edged past Sprint, thanks to a major increase in performance in twenty major metro areas. It continues to struggle outside of metro areas, the report said. For text performance, AT&T led a close field, followed by Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile.
RootMetrics' study used 6.1 million performance measurements across all networks; 237,506 miles of driving; testing in 7,323 indoor locations; covering 100% of the U.S. population.
Your state by state results (click to enlarge):
