The latest State of the Mobile Union report from RootMetrics is now live, providing analysis on which of the mobile carriers performed best in the second half of 2025. Performance is broken down into many different categories, as well as markets, which allows each carrier to get their fair share of awards for marketing purposes.
The big awards are for 5G performance, network reliability, and network speed. There are also awards for things like call and text performance, but if you wanted to drop a Super Bowl commercial and tell potential customers you have the best network, you better have one of the top 3 categories under your belt. In Verizon’s case, they essentially swept the major categories, with T-Mobile tying for one, and AT&T tying for three. You can view those awards based on national performance below.
Awards by Carrier
Verizon
- Overall Performance
- Network Reliability
- Network Responsiveness
- Data Performance
- Call Performance (Tie)
- Text Performance (Tie)
- Video Performance
T-Mobile
- Network Speed (Tie)
AT&T
- Network Speed (Tie)
- Call Performance (Tie)
- Text Performance (Tie)
Once you dig a little deeper into the data, you’ll see that these carriers aren’t actually separated by a whole lot. With exception to median download speeds (where T-Mobile dominates), the big three are essentially neck and neck when scored out of 100 points.
Viewing the trends is also helpful. Verizon’s number grew or stayed consistent in 7 out of 8 categories. Meanwhile, AT&T either dropped or stayed at the same score in all 8 categories. T-Mobile grew in two, speed and video performance, while the score went unchanged in the remaining. You can view the scores below.
You can view the entire report by following the link below. There is helpful information in there, such as specific market data if you want to see who is performing the best in your area. It can be helpful if you’re shopping around.
// Ookla
How can vzw win for network reliability and they were down twice within a 6 month period. Something doesn't smell right with this report. I have no dog in the race because I have all 3 carriers but let's be honest!
Probably helps the network a lot when you shed like 20% of your users
I don't get how at&t gets first for speed when their median speed is souch lower than T-Mobile.
They're all about the same. It all comes down to which one is the biggest a-hole.