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MetroPCS, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. Now, with the retirement of the
Sprint brand in August, there are three nationwide carriers: AT&T, T-Mobile,
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AT&T and T-Mobile, respectively. US Cellular covers mostly rural areas in many
states, but it doesn’t have service in enough of the major cities we test to be part
of our study.
So far, T-Mobile’s absorption of Sprint hasn’t shown much advantage for
consumers. To the contrary, really: In our results, it looks like the rush of Sprint
users onto T-Mobile’s network has created some congestion that has caused
T-Mobile to fall behind in comparative performance. All of the carriers’ speeds
increased from 2019 to 2020, but T-Mobile’s increased less than AT&T’s and
Verizon’s did.
T-Mobile pleads patience, saying that once it’s able to properly reuse Sprint’s
spectrum for 5G, performance will improve. That promise appears to be bearing
fruit in a few cities, but T-Mobile must move faster to make that real.
BOTH AT&T AND
T-MOBILE CLAIM
NATIONWIDE 5G
COVERAGE