Report: T-Mobile 'Clear Winner' Among Wireless Providers In Philly
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Among the big four wireless providers, a crowdsourced study finds a clear winner in Philadelphia when it comes to fast, reliable cell phone service.
Beating the rest of the mobile networks in every measurement, according to OpenSignal analyst Kevin Fitchard, is T-Mobile:
"They actually ran away with the 4G speed award. 22.98Mbps was its average 4G download speed," he said.
AT&T ranks second speediest in Philly, followed closely by Verizon and distantly by Sprint.
"It's one of the few markets where T-Mobile and Verizon weren't running neck and neck," Fitchard said.
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T-Mobile slipped past Verizon in 4G network availability; both were above 90 percent.
"This is a really big deal because Verizon has always had this reputation for having the most reliable network, most consistent network, and the highest coverage," he said.
Both it and AT&T appear to have suffered since rolling out unlimited data plans to keep up with T-Mobile and Sprint.
It's been a financial success, but has led to more network congestion.
T-Mobile's challenge, Fitchard says, will be to maintain the success it's seen in cities as it expands to suburban and rural areas.
OpenSignal tracked more than five billion measurements from a couple hundred thousand devices whose owners downloaded the app and agreed to turn their phones into guinea pigs to collect this data from March to June 2017.