Verizon Vs. T-Mobile Vs. AT&T Vs. Sprint: Verizon And T-Mobile Top Regional Rankings of Network Speed, Coverage

The major mobile carriers in the United States all claim their network covers the vast majority of the country, but a new set of third-party tests shows that some carriers do a better job in specific regions of the U.S. than their competitors.

OpenSignal typically breaks down carrier coverage at a national level with its crowdsourced data measuring the signal quality and speed of the major networks. This year, the company broke down the results further to show the top carriers across the Midwest, Northeast, Southeast, Southwest and Western parts of the country.

The results should please subscribers on Verizon and T-Mobile, as the two carriers placed first or second in every region in both speed and availability, with Verizon winning out as the overall best option.

In network speed, Verizon carried the Midwest with 20 Mbps and west coast with 17 Mbps. T-Mobile took the top spot in the northeast with 18.6 Mbps and southeast with 18.2 Mbps. The carriers split the southwest, tying in speed across their networks.

As for 4G availability, Verizon was the best bet in every region with more than 87 percent coverage in every part of the country. T-Mobile topped 85 percent coverage in every region but the southeast, but never topped Verizon in overall coverage.

AT&T managed to put in a decent showing despite tracking behind T-Mobile and Verizon in both speed and network availability; it offered relatively consistent speed across every region—it’s best showing was 15.2 Mbps in the northeast—and its 4G network covered over 80 percent of every region. It finished third in every metric.

Sprint, meanwhile, came out of OpenSignal’s testing looking the worst. It finished fourth in every category. The carrier has yet to cover 80 percent of any region with 4G coverage and its speeds never make it much higher than 10 Mbps.

Sprint has been trending in the right direction according to OpenSignal’s nationwide testing, which found the carrier experienced a seven percent boost in overall coverage—but it’s also playing from much further behind as the three other major mobile providers have left Sprint in the dust.

The findings at a regional level seem to confirm those found in the national tests: Verizon and T-Mobile have taken a sizable lead over the competition in coverage provided. As carriers get more competitive with the plans they offer consumers—including Sprint offering the cheapest per-line unlimited data deal yet and Verizon taking off data caps —the network may be what sets these companies apart for consumers.