Network Quality Report Finds Verizon's Lead Over AT&T Narrowing, T-Mobile Gaining

Verizon again topped a national review of cell network quality, though its lead narrowed over archival AT&T.

“Reliability is getting much, much closer,” RootMetrics CEO Bill Moore said in an interview. “AT&T is very much neck and neck [with Verizon].”

Overall, RootMetrics gave Verizon a score of 81.6, followed by AT&T at 79.5, though the company also gives out a variety of separate rankings based on categories such as speed, reliability and call/text quality. It also ranks the carriers on a state and local basis.

In addition to top marks overall, Verizon was tops in reliability, speed, data and call performance, while AT&T was tops in texting.

T-Mobile, while a distant third at the national level, did quite well in a number of metro areas, especially when it came to network speed. The company earned three times as many category awards as it did six months earlier, including being tops or tied for the best speed in 32 of 125 metro markets.

As for Sprint, which finished last overall, Moore said that it is “still in the transition and building stage.” Where its Spark network is available, it is pretty fast, but, Moore said, “They still have a ways to go to break through.”

To do its testing, RootMetrics drives more than 234,000 miles throughout all 50 states and tests the major networks with more than 5.6 million test samples.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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