(Credit: Ivelin Denev/Getty Images)
A new report from the company behind the speed-testing tool many of you rely on showed little change in its rankings of the top mobile and fixed providers, once again placing T-Mobile and AT&T at the top of each category.
And, as in previous years, this assessment from Speedtest developer Ookla should be much more useful to people shopping for wireless service, because many broadband customers have, at best, one provider serving their residence with the fastest possible fiber-optic connection.
(Credit: Ookla)Ookla’s new Speedtest Connectivity Report, covering data gathered via that app from July to December 2025, shows relatively small improvements from Ookla’s previous report published six months ago. T-Mobile again came away with the fastest Connectivity Score, a hybrid metric that factors in not just raw download speeds but also tests of web browsing and video-streaming performance: T-Mobile’s 81.52 beat Verizon’s 76.57 and AT&T’s 74.5.
Ookla also measured T-Mobile as having the fastest median download speeds (259.48Mbps) and the fastest median 5G downloads (309.41Mbps). But while this study ranked T-Mobile’s 5G availability as superior to AT&T and Verizon’s (91.2%, versus 87.5% and 59.9%), it found a solid lead for Verizon in coverage (30%, against 25.2% for AT&T and 23.9% for T-Mobile).
Some of these findings don’t square with the report released last week by Ookla’s RootMetrics subsidiary, which relied on a nationwide systematic testing program to find that Verizon had the best network, generally by narrow margins over AT&T and T-Mobile.
“Speedtest captures real-world user experience—including speed and latency—at the exact moments and locations where consumers use their devices daily,” Mark Giles, an Ookla research analyst, said via email. “Conversely, RootMetrics utilizes engineering-grade drive and walk testing to provide controlled, side-by-side benchmarking of network speeds, reliability, and call performance.”
The subtext of that: Network operators might want to pay more attention to the Root reports. “By using these complementary methods, we help operators pinpoint improvements while reflecting the actual performance individual users see on their screens," Giles said.
Another bit of context to keep in mind: When judging on-phone performance (as opposed to sharing mobile broadband with a laptop via a phone’s mobile hotspot mode), all three carriers provide service much faster than the 100Mbps that we judge more than adequate for a home broadband connection.
At Home, AT&T Fiber Edges Out Verizon
As for residential broadband, Ookla once again judged AT&T Fiber the fastest option. Its Connectivity Score of 84.9 edged out Verizon’s 82.57, Cox’s 80.52, Comcast’s Xfinity's 80.17, and Charter’s Spectrum's 78.92. (Charter and Cox are pursuing a merger.) In addition, Ookla clocked AT&T Fiber as having the fastest median download speed of 369.39Mbps.
(Credit: Ookla)But as with prior Ookla surveys of fixed broadband, you should parse these numbers in the context of Ookla testing AT&T’s fiber broadband, which tops out at 5Gbps, separately from that company’s other residential broadband services.
Ookla’s assessments of other firms don’t offer a breakdown by connection technology; for example, Verizon’s score factors in its fast Fios fiber broadband as well as its slower 5G fixed wireless access (FWA). Few Americans can choose from multiple fiber options for their home, while 5G FWA has allowed millions of them to dump the cable providers that once offered their only useful high-speed access at home.
(PCMag readers, meanwhile, didn’t rank AT&T at all in their assessment of the best ISPs for 2025; that survey’s top honor went to the fast but scarcely available Google Fiber, followed by Fios.)
Ookla’s Giles said the company’s more granular assessment of AT&T is the product of that company cooperating with its research. “AT&T works with us to segment its Speedtest results so we can report on its individual broadband technologies separately,” he said. “We are keen to highlight these distinctions in the market because it provides greater clarity to consumers and puts pressure on other providers to do the same.”
His advice to AT&T’s competitors amounted to “Call our office, please.”
Wrote Giles: “Currently, Verizon’s results are aggregated across its residential portfolio, but we continue to advocate for more granular reporting across the industry to help customers better understand the specific performance of fiber vs. other technologies."
Disclosure: Ookla is owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag’s parent company.