Verizon rules 5G in the latest carrier speed test, but you shouldn’t care

Ookla’s new Mobile Networks State of the Union report is out, which means it’s time to find out whether

has managed to bag any awards across a number of categories (via Android Authority).

As is usual, all three carriers walked away with a number of awards, but T-Mobile found itself lagging behind its competitors in award numbers.

In the important 5G speed category, all three carriers came neck and neck. However, one carrier definitely showed itself as the strongest of the Big Three where 5G is concerned.

Award numbers aren’t everything, but T-Mobile still won’t be pleased

The Mobile Networks State of the Union report comes out twice a year, and it’s a chance for each of the Big Three US carriers to strut their stuff and show how they’ve improved over the last six months. Ultimately, it’s not that common for there to be big swings in these reports, but it does where each carrier is improving or being left behind.

Ookla has split the awards into an Overall section and a 5G section, which just underlines how important 5G is to all three carriers that it’s judged worthy of being judged on its own.

As you can tell from the awards numbers above, AT&T and Verizon outpaced T-Mobile quite handily, winning five and six awards to T-Mobile’s two.

However, there’s more here to dig into than just the award numbers. In judgment scores, T-Mobile isn’t all that far behind the other two, scoring only marginally less in each of the categories. It also scored the highest aggregate national median download speed, meaning the gap between the highest and lowest speeds is likely much smaller than the other carriers. It may not be the fastest, but if nothing else, that gives it some props for reliability.

The 5G battleground has settled down

Verizon won out in the 5G battle, but it’s not a slam dunk by any means.

Verizon won awards for the Best 5G Experience, Most Reliable 5G, and tied with the other two for the Fastest 5G. T-Mobile came next, and outside the tied Fastest 5G award, it also won the award for 5G Availability. Poor ol’ AT&T, on the other hand, just gets to share in the reflected glory of the Fastest 5G award.

It’s a sign that the 5G market seems to have largely matured. While carriers are still making inroads in areas, such as Verizon boosting its availability by almost 10%, on the whole, things have settled down.

What does that mean for consumers? It means that, generally speaking, all three carriers are reliable and fast. Sure, Verizon scored the most awards, but the differences between the winners and losers are fairly small.

While you may want your carrier to have done the best, ultimately it means consumers have stronger choices when it comes down to picking their next carrier. We all love those switching bonuses, and this report makes it clear you’re unlikely to be missing out when you switch.