- T-Mobile held onto Ookla’s “Best Mobile Network” crown in 1H 2026
- Opensignal pronounced T-Mobile the winner in its Q2 US Mobile Network Experience Report, giving it 12 out of 16 possible awards
- In both reports, Verizon retained its edge in coverage, the one major category that T-Mobile hasn’t cracked
Two competing research firms came out with similar findings this week, each awarding top network honors to T-Mobile.
In Ookla’s Speedtest Connectivity Report for the first half of 2026, T-Mobile led the mobile market across multiple performance metrics and grabbed the Best Mobile Network title overall, as well as Best 5G Network.
Meanwhile, Opensignal’s Q2 2026 report pronounced T-Mobile the winner of the most awards in the U.S. – 12 out of a possible 16, retaining all its wins from a previous report back in January. It swept the Network Performance and Quality of Experience categories, with a particularly strong win for overall Download Speed, where it led the competition by nearly 97 Mbps.
However, in both the Ookla and Opensignal reports, Verizon stood out in the Coverage category. Opensignal gave it a score of 9.7 out of 10. AT&T and T-Mobile both improved slightly to narrow the gap, but Verizon remains the frontrunner, according to Opensignal.
Ookla on the coverage metric
Ookla recognizes coverage is a key metric for consumers when evaluating a network provider, but coverage is a difficult metric to assess based on crowdsource data, according to Ookla Industry Research and Analysis Director Mark Giles.
“Consumer initiated testing via the Speedtest app would only show us where people have connectivity, leaving the rest of the map effectively dark,” he told Fierce.
“To give us a fuller picture of the coverage of each network, we collect coverage scans, which Speedtest and our partner apps allow users to opt into sharing with us. These allow us to map out the extent of network coverage at a much more robust level,” he said.
Obviously, coverage is a big deal. Fierce asked Ookla last year how T-Mobile could win the Best Mobile Network prize when it didn’t score the best coverage.
At that time, Ookla said the true measure of a network’s performance lies in how it enables real-world activities and the Speedtest report provides a snapshot of that because it measures things like latency that affect common online tasks like web browsing and video streaming.
T-Mobile’s “best network” claim
T-Mobile first claimed Ookla’s Best Mobile Network crown in June 2025 and hired the actor Billy Bob Thornton to appear in commercials to talk about T-Mobile’s network superiority. That prompted AT&T to fight back, hiring actor Luke Wilson to appear in an ad campaign that mimicked T-Mobile’s stroll in the countryside.
T-Mobile later upped the ante when it launched its “Switching Made Easy” gambit that promised to switch customers from AT&T or Verizon over to T-Mobile in 15 minutes. That didn’t go over well with T-Mobile’s rivals, which fought back with initiatives of their own.
AT&T on the move
Otherwise, the Ookla Speedtest 1H 2026 results were broadly in line with expectations. Giles noted that AT&T is quietly closing the speed gap on Verizon – AT&T’s Fastest Network score rose from 62.51 to 65.21, nearly catching Verizon’s 65.33, and AT&T’s Fastest 5G score jumped from 45.06 to 49.18.
Based on median download speeds, AT&T actually edged ahead of Verizon, with 172.36 Mbps compared with Verizon’s 157.01 Mbps. However, Verizon outpaces AT&T on upload performance, he said.
According to Opensignal, AT&T's users spend the most time connected; it scored 99.6% to retain its top spot for Time on Network. However, the lead is narrow – Verizon remains just behind at 99.5%, while T-Mobile has slightly improved to 99.2%, the report said.
RootMetrics’ drive tests
Opensignal and Ookla both use apps as part of their data collection. RootMetrics uses drive tests and off-the-shelf Android phones to collect its data.
Last week, RootMetrics released its State of the Mobile Union report for the first half of 2026. RootMetrics also happens to be part of Ookla, which was recently acquired by Accenture.
Unlike the other two reports, T-Mobile didn’t sweep all the categories. In fact, AT&T and Verizon tied for Overall Performance in that study. T-Mobile shared the U.S. Network Speed RootScore Award with AT&T while maintaining the highest 5G availability in the U.S. at 96.1% in the first half of 2026.
More Fierce stories about 5G connectivity:
AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon each win ‘fastest’ 5G awards: Huh?
5G download speeds in U.S. at meager 47-58 Mbps range, per Opensignal
AT&T scores fastest 5G network, Verizon’s availability drags down speed