OpenSignal regularly conducts thorough assessments of global mobile telecoms network performance, thanks to a downloadable app which gathers information from user devices on network availability, speed and latency on LTE and 3G networks. In this specific report, it gathered more than 2.8 billion data readings from roughly 120,000 OpenSignal users across the country. It only took performance measurements for the top four US MNOs – AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon.

This time around, the biggest result of them all was T-Mobile nipping into top spot ahead of Verizon for fastest LTE network, for the first time. The challenger carrier, famed for its underdog attitude, vlog announcements from CEO John Legere and bottomless data buckets, registered an average LTE download speed of 16.28 Mbps. This just supplanted Verizon by just .34 Mbps, as the big red carrier clocked an average speed of 15.94.

Elsewhere in the findings, T-Mobile ranked top for 3G speeds, and therefore overall speeds, as well as lowest latency on the 3G network. Verizon picked up the gong for 4G availability at 85.89%, just ahead of T-Mobile’s 83.2%; while Sprint the award for best latency on a 4G network with 57.06ms. AT&T won’t be too amused, however, having not won a single category.

As one would expect, John Legere was suitably enthused with the results, and took to the company blog to express his delight – and have a little nudge at his rival telcos. (Formatting left as originally written)

“Today, OpenSignal released a new network report finding T-Mobile’s LTE network is the fastest in the nation – yet again!”

“…but you know what the best part of their data is? It’s real. From real users. Millions of them using their real devices tens of millions of times. The way they really use them. Like, in real life.  In real time. It’s not an orchestrated test, where some idiot in a van tries to stage real life situations, driving around the country over six months.”

Telecoms.com