A new survey by RootMetrics shows Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) leading competitors in category measures that include network reliability, data performance and network speed. The survey captured the standing of the top four wireless carriers in 1H2016. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) came second in the latest survey while Sprint Corp (NYSE:S) finished above fierce rival T-Mobile US Inc (NASDAQ:TMUS).
Immediately after the RootMetrics rankings were out, Verizon said that the results show that not all networks are the same. The company has topped in many recent surveys of U.S. wireless carriers as industry competition shifts from competitive pricing to quality network services.
All the four leading carriers are investing in network improvement. RootMetrics noted in its latest ranking that all the carriers have improved their standing compared to where they were in the previous survey, which captured the back half of 2015.
How the carriers rank
In the six categories at the national level, AT&T came second in all but one. The particular areas that Verizon beat AT&T included network speed, data performance, network reliability and overall performance.
However, AT&T topped Verizon in call performance, thus walking away with the Call RootScore award. Nevertheless, AT&T performed dismally in the Text RootScore category as it neither won nor shared points in the category as it has typically done in prior surveys.
RootMetrics said that Verizon won the Text RootScore outright.
State level performance
At state level tests, Verizon still beat the competition. Out of the possible 300 RootScore award opportunities, Verizon attained 274 while AT&T walked away with 82, indicating a decrease from 110 in the previous test. T-Mobile scooped 20 and Sprint closed the bottom with 11 awards.
It turns out that the reason AT&T’s state awards plummeted in the latest test was due to weak performance in Network Reliability, Text RootScore and Call RootScore. For instance, the Net Reliability score for AT&T at state level fell to 10 from 20 and Text scores declined to 26 from 37.
T-Mobile skids
Verizon took the crown from T-Mobile in the latest survey in the category of network speed and data performance. T-Mobile topped in those two categories in the last survey.