We recently covered how necessary the addition of C-band spectrum to the 5G strategies of Verizon Wireless and AT&T is for increased performance. We now have data from Speedtest Intelligence® to show exactly how much C-band has already affected 5G performance in the week following launch on January 19 and how that might impact our Ookla Market Report™ rankings next quarter.
U.S. mobile 5G download speeds increased 13% week over week
We saw a week-over-week increase in median 5G download speed of 13% when looking at all operators combined. AT&T and T-Mobile both had slight increases (1%) in median download speed over 5G for all operators when comparing the seven days starting January 12, 2022 to the week of January 19, 2022, with AT&T rising from 68.43 Mbps to 70.46 Mbps and T-Mobile increasing from 181.99 Mbps to 187.11 Mbps. This coincides with AT&T’s very selective rollout of C-band in eight markets and the fact that T-Mobile did not add new spectrum on January 19, though they did launch their 5G carrier aggregation that same day.
Verizon Wireless saw the greatest performance gain of 50% after the C-band rollout, from 76.51 Mbps during the week starting January 19 to 116.29 Mbps during the week of January 19. This massive improvement in speed shows the power of Verizon’s widespread deployment of C-band spectrum and C-band’s ability to deliver fast speeds. We also saw a large increase in testing for customers across the board, but especially Verizon customers who could have seen an ultra wide band icon show up on their phone for the first time after the launch.
This spike in testing is one reason we usually report on at least one quarter of data. However, if the trend in increased speed continues, Verizon Wireless could challenge T-Mobile for fastest download speed in our next Speedtest Global Index Market Analysis.
C-band’s effect on speeds differed across five cities
We also examined week-over-week performance in five of the cities where both Verizon and AT&T deployed C-band: Austin, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Fort Worth, Texas; Houston, Texas; and Jacksonville, Florida. AT&T saw a 12% increase in median download speed over 5G in Austin, and Verizon Wireless saw statistically significant increases in Fort Worth (21%) and Jacksonville (28%). All other operator speeds over 5G were relatively flat in other listed locations with the exception of Houston where Verizon Wireless showed a dip from a high the prior week.
This could upset the market by the time of our next report
As mentioned above, if Verizon continues to capitalize on their C-band rollout and add additional deployments, we could well see an upset in the U.S. market rankings by the time of our next Speedtest Global Index Market Analysis. There may be additional upsets to come, because while AT&T saw a marginal impact on its initial C-Band launch, their [strategy to install C-band in tandem with recently acquired 3.45-3.55GHz frequency](https://www.fiercewireless.com/5g/att-plans-deploy-345-ghz-c-band-one-climb-tower-strategy) could revolutionize AT&T’s speeds in the second half of the year. Subscribe to Ookla Research™ to get the latest analyses delivered directly to your inbox.
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