After driving 1,107 miles all over the metro Denver area and making 25,602 mobile phone calls, RootMetrics announced a : Verizon Wireless.
That’s not too surprising, considering that Verizon has won or shared first place during eight of the last rounds of testing. More interesting is what happened with the other carriers: Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T.
Sprint placed second in “Overall Performance,” with a score of 94.9 out of 100. A year ago, , scoring 81.2. And back in 2012, Sprint scored a woeful 44.5. Verizon, by comparison, scored 96.8 during the same period.
Sprint improved in its reliability — an indicator of fewer dropped calls — but also saw a huge increase in data speed. RootMetrics noted that Sprint’s median download speed increased to 10.7 Mbps, compared to 6.8 Mbps six months ago.
Of course, Sprint was pleased to hear the results.
“This improvement is the result of a multi-year network overhaul along with a continued focus on building and optimizing the network. We did what we termed a rip and replace – removing old hardware and software and replacing it with new technology,” local Sprint spokesman Dave Mellin said.
However, even though the four carriers all scored above 90, the difference for the consumer could mean having your call drop — or not, RootMetrics CEO Bill Moore said.
“Sprint had more than a 2 percent call-failure rate. You would notice those types of differences,” Moore said. “And if you can’t get on the network, speed doesn’t matter.”
AT&T, he noted, saw slower speeds during the first half of 2015 plus more dropped calls than during prior tests. That’s why it ranked fourth.
RootMetrics collects the data using real people. They drive around the cities and do things normal consumers do: text, check e-mail, stream videos and make calls during rush hour. Driving around, they test how well service switches between towers and jumps from 2G to 3G to 4G networks. They also test indoors, including at 35 locations in the Denver area.
RootMetrics even gives carriers the benefit of the doubt by testing with the latest and greatest smartphones sold by each carrier.
“We’re able to see congestion at all times of the day,” Moore said. “Peak times are during rush hour.”
The wireless carriers don’t influence the tests one iota, he said. But they do buy the reports, which is how RootMetrics makes money. (Organizations like the Federal Communications Commission also subscribe to the reports). And consumers have benefited from that.
“The net benefit for the consumer is because we’re uncloaking that information to the carriers, they’re using it to improve their networks,” Moore said.
But even as Denver’s four major wireless carriers scored high, speed here lags other parts of the country. Here, we’re getting up to 10 Mbps. In Pittsburgh, AT&T recorded the fastest median download speeds at 20.7 Mbps and upload speed of 13.5 Mbps.
“Overall, all the networks (in Denver) are doing pretty darn good,” he said. “But there is opportunity for improved speed across the board.”
Tamara Chuang: 303-954-1209, tchuang@denverpost.com or twitter.com/Gadgetress
Mobile service in metro Denver
How the top four wireless carriers ranked in overall performance (includes reliability and data speed):
1st Half 2015
• Verizon, 96.6
• Sprint, 94.9
• T-Mobile, 94.8
• AT&T, 92.9
1st Half 2014
• T-Mobile, 96.1
• Verizon, 95.9
• AT&T, 94.4
• Sprint, 81.2
Source: RootMetrics
