Verizon has the best cellular network in US

Each carrier would like you to believe that its network is better than those of its rivals. It may be touted as the most reliable or the fastest but, at least in one regard, it definitely takes the cake. Such claims can be hard to believe though when they come directly from the horse's mouth. After all, it is easy to lead the pack when you decide exactly what the rules are.

RootMetrics has conducted its own tests to find out which major US carrier has the best cellular network and, based on its findings, Verizon comes out as the clear winner, well ahead of AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile.

Verizon's cellular network is the best performer overall with a 94.5 rating, topping AT&T's 91.3, Sprint's 86 and T-Mobile's 80.9. RootMetrics tested the networks for reliability, speed, data performance, call performance and text performance, in all 50 states including the 125 most-populated metropolitan areas.

Big red is the winner in all of the five categories. In text performance, it shares the top spot with AT&T, however, which ranks a consistent second in the other four. Sprint and T-Mobile claim third and fourth place, respectively, across all categories.

When looking at the performance across the 50 states, Verizon leads from afar with a 272 rating, compared to AT&T's 110, Sprint's 36 or T-Mobile's nine. Big red has 176 "outright" wins against its rivals, and 96 ties. AT&T has 23 outright wins, and 87 ties. Sprint has no outright wins, but has 36 ties. T-Mobile has two wins, but only seven ties.

Verizon also has the best cellular network in the 125 most-populated metro areas too, getting a 597 rating from RootMetrics. AT&T comes in second place with a 424 rating, followed by Sprint with 212 and T-Mobile with 209.

Verizon takes first place in all categories but text performance, where it loses to AT&T and just barely gets past Sprint. AT&T comes second in reliability, data performance, and call performance, while Sprint and T-Mobile trade places back and forth in all categories. Sprint betters T-Mobile in network reliability and call performance, while the latter comes ahead of the former when it comes to network speed and data performance.

Here are some other things worth mentioning. AT&T and Verizon offer 4G LTE coverage in all of the 125 most-populated metro areas, but Sprint and T-Mobile only manage 103 and 111 markets, respectively.

AT&T's cellular network offers download speeds of between 10 and 20 Mbps in 62 out of the 125 markets, while speeds of more than 20 Mbps are only seen in 10 markets. Slower speeds are seen in the 20 other markets.

In Sprint's case, 54 markets see download speeds of between five and 10 Mbps, while speeds of between 10 and 20 Mbps are only encountered in 37 markets. Higher speeds are seen in 14 markets, while the remaining 20 markets see speeds of less than 5 Mbps.

When it comes to T-Mobile, its cellular network delivers download speeds of between 10 and 20 Mbps in 62 markets, and higher than 20 Mbps in 38 markets. Speeds of between 5 and 10 Mbps are seen in 24 markets, with only a single market getting speeds slower than 5 Mbps.

Verizon's cellular network manages speeds of between 10 and 20 Mbps in 52 markets, but in 58 other markets users can see speeds of more than 20 Mbps. Slower speeds are encountered in the 15 other markets, mostly between 5 and 10 Mbps.

If you want to learn more, hit the link in the third paragraph for the complete report.

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