T-Mobile vs Verizon vs AT&T: New report reveals which carrier offers the best 5G experience

Every six months, Ookla releases its Mobile Networks State of the Union report, which compares all three major US carriers across a variety of categories. Its latest report for the first half of 2026 is finally here, and it shows improvements across the board for T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon.

All three carriers scored multiple wins, with AT&T and Verizon in the lead. Though AT&T received five RootScore awards from Ookla and Verizon received six, it still lags behind in some key areas.

Verizon seems to be the overall winner here

AT&T’s only outright win came in the “Call Performance” category, whereas Verizon won outright in “Network Responsiveness,” “Data Performance,” and “Video Performance.” T-Mobile received two RootScore awards for “Network Speed” and “Text Performance,” tying with AT&T for its network speed and with both AT&T and Verizon for text performance.

AT&T’s national performance also showed promising signs, with the carrier improving its scores in overall performance, reliability, and responsiveness compared with its second-half 2025 scores.

Both T-Mobile and Verizon mostly maintained their national performance across the board. However, Verizon dropped from first place to second in call performance compared with the second half of 2025, and T-Mobile dropped from second place to third in video performance. Even so, Verizon seems to be the clear winner, with more outright wins than T-Mobile or AT&T.

T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon tied for the “Fastest 5G” award

The report also credits Verizon with the best 5G experience of all three carriers. The carrier also won the “Most Reliable 5G” award. Perhaps more notable is that all three carriers tied for the “Fastest 5G” award, scoring within one point of each other in the report. Compared with last year’s report, this shows that both AT&T and T-Mobile have made major improvements to their 5G networks.

Ookla credits T-Mobile’s spectrum availability for the massive improvement in 5G speeds compared with last year’s report. AT&T, on the other hand, also began deploying its 5G services across the 140MHz and 180MHz spectrums, resulting in improved network speeds and allowing it to tie with both T-Mobile and Verizon for the fastest 5G award.

T-Mobile still leads in 5G availability. The un-carrier recorded 5G availability of 96.1%, far surpassing Verizon (89%) and AT&T (88.2%).