T-Mobile had the best U.S. wireless network during the first half of 2025 says new report

T-Mobile was the best U.S. wireless provider during the first half of this year, according to the Speedtest report

According to Ookla, the Speedtest Connectivity Score reliably measures a carrier’s overall mobile network connected experience using a combination of scores based on speed, web browsing, and video streaming. It wasn’t close when deciding which carrier was fastest in the U.S. during the first half of this year. With a score of 74.45, T-Mobile trounced Verizon (65.72) and AT&T (63.16). The order was the same for 5G speeds, with a leading 58.02 for T-Mobile, 52.57 for Verizon, and 44.36 for AT&T.

T-Mobile had the fastest 5G wireless speeds in the U.S during the first half of the year. | Image credit-Ookla

A lot of consumers in the U.S. subscribe to Verizon because they believe that the carrier has superior coverage. The Speedtest numbers show that Americans have this one right, as Verizon‘s Coverage Score was 29.9% with AT&T second at 24.9%. T-Mobile was third at 22.9%.

U.S. consumers consider T-Mobile to be the best wireless carrier in the U.S. | Image credit-Ookla

When you must have a 5G connection, the T-Mobile network is your best bet as the wireless provider had a leading 90.8% 5G Availability Score. This means that nearly 91% of the time they were connected to T-Mobile, subscribers had an active connection to a 5G signal. That occurred 87.5% of the time for AT&T subscribers, and only 54.2% of the time for Verizon customers.

When ranking carrier consistency, Ookla measures the percentage of time each carrier met or exceeded 5 Mbps with its download speed and 1Mbps with its upload speed. T-Mobile met these thresholds 87.6% of the time (77.6% for 5G). Verizon was next with a score of 84.7% (75.8% 5G), followed by AT&T‘s 80.9%  (66.6% 5G).

15 years ago, if you asked the average wireless user in the U.S. to rank the top carriers, the results might have been in this order: Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile. We’ve often discussed T-Mobile‘s amazing turnaround, and I feel honored to have chronicled one of the most incredible worst-to-first stories that the business world has ever seen. The latest Consumer Sentiment scores have T-Mobile with a leading 3.78 out of 5 reading. Verizon placed second with a 3.40 score, and AT&T was third with a 3.12 tally.

T-Mobile won the most categories scored by Ookla for the H1 2025 Speedtest Connectivity Report

The fastest region in the U.S. was the District of Columbia, with a median mobile download speed of 200.29 Mbps. T-Mobile was the fastest carrier in that region. Among the U.S. cities with the largest populations, San Antonio had the fastest median mobile download speed at 249.15 Mbps. T-Mobile was the fastest carrier in that city.

The carrier with the largest number of trophies received was T-Mobile.

T-Mobile

Verizon

AT&T was not at the top of any category measured by Ookla. To be clear, the data covered the first six months of this year.