Analyst Deep Dive – 1H 2026
The nation’s three big wireless network operators continue to spend heavily to improve their networks. That spending is above and beyond the millions of dollars that each allocates every quarter to standard capital expenses like network maintenance.
For example, in just the past year, AT&T agreed to purchase $23 billion worth of spectrum from EchoStar, T-Mobile closed on its $4.4 billion purchase of UScellular’s assets, and Verizon bid $3.2 billion for licenses in the FCC’s latest AWS-3 auction.
This aggressive pursuit of network improvement is clear within the data collected by RootMetrics technicians, via testing on flagship Android phones, in the first half of 2026. These technicians collectively drove 243,000 miles around the U.S. – in big cities, smaller towns and the highways connecting them – testing cellular networks everywhere they went.
Within RootMetrics data, spending priorities emerge. AT&T is eager to expand its 5G network, which works across its C-band and – increasingly – 3.45 GHz spectrum holdings. But AT&T continues to use the non-standalone (NSA) version of 5G, and still pushes some tasks onto its legacy 4G LTE network.
Meanwhile, Verizon has accelerated its shift from the NSA version of 5G to the more advanced standalone (SA) version. For example, in the big cities covered by RootMetrics’ metro-area testing, 87% of Verizon’s samples in the first half of 2026 used 5G SA technology. That’s up from 24.7% in the first half of 2025 – a remarkable evolution in Verizon’s 5G strategy.
And T-Mobile’s network story remains one of refinement and innovation. The operator continues to refine its extensive 5G SA deployment (comprising 95.3% of RootMetrics’ metro-area samples in the first half of 2026) while also innovating in areas such as non-terrestrial networks (NTN). Indeed, T-Mobile’s T-Sat service, which uses SpaceX’s Starlink direct-to-device (D2D) technology, provided text messaging services in areas without cellular coverage. That contributed to T-Mobile’s share of the RootScore Text Performance Award.
Overall, though, RootMetrics data helps to highlight the networking investments – of all kinds – that AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon have made. For example, on a nationwide, aggregated basis (which combines results from all three operators), overall mobile speeds have risen from around 192 Mbps in the first half of 2024 to 334 Mbps in the first half of this year.
The reach of 5G in the U.S. has shown similar improvements. The percentage of all RootMetrics’ download tests using 5G (either SA or NSA) increased from around 84% in the first half of 2024 to 93% in the first half of this year.
Now, here’s a look at the spectrum, technologies, and strategies underpinning each operator’s RootMetrics results (in alphabetical order by carrier):
Although AT&T shows no meaningful shift from 5G NSA technology, the operator is adding to its overall 5G spectrum war chest. Toward the end of 2025, AT&T began deploying its 5G services across wider chunks of spectrum, partly due to the additional 3.45 GHz licenses it purchased from UScellular. Prior to this shift, a majority of AT&T’s 5G samples sat in either 80 MHz or 120 MHz chunks. But in the early months of 2026, roughly one-third of AT&T’s RootMetrics’ samples spanned blocks between 140 MHz and 180 MHz. This is important because network speeds and performance are directly impacted by the amount of spectrum deployed in a network. And that’s exactly the correlation AT&T’s RootMetrics samples show: Median download speeds spiked from around 250 Mbps during 2025 to as high as 350 Mbps in February of 2026 in part due to the addition of this spectrum to AT&T’s network.
A second element in AT&T’s story involves how efficiently the operator uses its spectrum holdings. This can be determined by measuring the raw hardware efficiency of the operator’s radios against the throughput recorded at the operator’s application layer, thereby calculating how much speed is lost to network “noise.” Within this ranking, AT&T scores ahead of its competitors.
AT&T’s spectral efficiency can be traced to several factors, including its use of SRS (Sounding Reference Signal) antenna switching technology, the higher Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) the operator is using in its newer 3.45 GHz deployments, and its ongoing shift from Nokia equipment to Ericsson equipment. In the first half of 2026, 90.3% of AT&T’s testing samples ran atop Ericsson equipment, up from 84.8% in the second half of last year.
But AT&T still relies on its legacy 4G LTE network for other tasks. For example, RootMetrics’ “lite data” tests are designed to evaluate network performance (including latency) during relatively simple actions such as browsing the web or refreshing background data. AT&T uses its LTE network (96% of samples in urban, metro areas) for these specific tests. That differs from Verizon and T-Mobile, which both primarily rely on their 5G SA networks in metro areas for these kinds of tasks. As a result, AT&T’s network took longer to complete these “lite data” tasks when compared with the operator’s competitors, in both metro-area testing and in more rural, state-area testing. However, it’s worth noting that AT&T’s “lite data” tests on LTE showed success rates similar to or better than ones by the competition using 5G SA.
Aside from T-Mobile’s extensive use of 5G SA technology, the company also continues to manage a capacious amount of spectrum across its network deployments in urban, metro areas. Indeed, in the first half of 2026, roughly 70% of RootMetrics’ T-Mobile samples in these areas used more than 200 MHz of total bandwidth. In comparison, less than 10% of Verizon’s samples used 200 MHz or more, while AT&T maxed out at 180 MHz. This is a main reason why T-Mobile’s median mobile download speeds in metro areas reached 520 Mbps, helping T-Mobile tie with AT&T for the national RootScore Network Speed Award.
Further, T-Mobile appears to be in the very early stages of adding even more spectrum into its operations in locations ranging from San Jose, California, to Buffalo, New York. A small percentage of RootMetrics’ samples for T-Mobile in these locations show transmissions in the operator’s C-band spectrum – that’s noteworthy considering T-Mobile has primarily used its 2.5 GHz holdings for its 5G buildout so far. T-Mobile took home roughly $9.3 billion worth of C-band spectrum in the FCC’s 2021 auction. Now, it appears that T-Mobile is beginning to put some of that spectrum into its 5G play.
Here, it’s worth noting that T-Mobile’s shift to 5G extends across virtually all of RootMetrics’ testing samples. Indeed, in RootMetrics’ rural, state-area testing, both AT&T and Verizon relied on their 4G LTE connections roughly a quarter of the time in the first half of 2026 – but T-Mobile’s 4G LTE usage was in the low single digits.
So why didn’t T-Mobile win the 5G Speed Award outright? RootMetrics’ scoring system is built on an earned points curve across all testing samples countrywide, rather than simply evaluating the highest single median speed or top-tier urban network environment. T-Mobile, for its part, often relies on its 600 MHz holdings for coverage in more rural areas – spectrum that supports broad coverage but not necessarily speedy connections. Those rural speeds weren’t enough to push T-Mobile above its competitors.
But T-Mobile continues to advance. The company’s text messaging success rates have increased across most rural, state-area testing routes due to the company’s T-Sat D2D agreement with SpaceX’s Starlink. Specifically, RootMetrics recorded an 87.2% text messaging success rate on T-Sat. But usage remains relatively low. Of the phones that traveled out of T-Mobile’s cellular service area, 0.22% indicated T-Sat coverage. However, it’s worth noting that RootMetrics’ tests were conducted from inside a car, and most D2D services are intended to be used in a stationary position, outside, with a good view of the sky. Further, T-Sat coverage varied widely; for example, roughly 6% of phones in Oregon indicated T-Sat services when outside cellular coverage.
Finally, T-Mobile’s purchase of some of UScellular’s assets is yielding results. The percentage of RootMetrics’ T-Mobile calling samples that reported roaming showed declines due to the transaction.
Verizon’s 5G story focuses on enhancement. In the first half of 2026, the company continued its deployment of 5G SA technology, which generally supports snappier connections as well as advanced 5G technologies such as network slicing. Network slicing can carve out network resources for specific applications. Verizon also widened its deployment of mid-band C-band spectrum for 5G, and it deepened its use of capacity-enhancement techniques like carrier aggregation. Carrier aggregation essentially combines transmissions across multiple spectrum bands into a single data pipe, thus supporting faster speeds and more stable connections.
Specifically, 86.3% of Verizon’s 5G samples used the C-band in metro areas in the second quarter of 2026. And Verizon is increasingly recruiting other bands for 5G in metro areas, including AWS-3, 850 MHz and PCS 1900 MHz. Indeed, this partly explains the RootScore three-way tie for Fastest 5G: As Verizon spreads 5G across more low-band spectrum holdings like 850 MHz, its overall 5G speeds begin to moderate away from the peaks it provided when it was mostly using its midband C-band holdings for 5G. Thinner slices of low-band spectrum generally offer slower speeds than thick chunks of mid-band spectrum.
As for carrier aggregation, Verizon began using 4-carrier aggregation in the first half of 2026; it previously used less complex carrier aggregation designs. The addition of 4-carrier aggregation helped push at least 170 MHz of spectrum across more than half of Verizon’s download samples in urban, metro areas, thereby raising speeds. Further, Verizon led the industry in the use of 2-carrier aggregation for upload connections, deploying that particular feature across more than half of its C-band samples in metro areas. A focus on uplink capacity is noteworthy as AI services grow in prominence.
But spectrum and 5G aren’t the only functions tested by RootMetrics. Verizon saw a slight rise in its rate of metro-area call failures in the first half of 2026 compared with the first half of 2025. Broadly, Verizon has been expanding its deployment of VoNR calling technology (basically, voice calling over 5G). T-Mobile was the first to deploy VoNR. Both have seen growing pains in deploying the new technology. AT&T, meanwhile, has so far avoided VoNR, preferring instead to use Voice over LTE (VoLTE) technology, which sends voice calls over a 4G LTE connection. In the first half of 2026, AT&T won the RootScore Call Performance Award.
Finally, it’s worth noting that Verizon continues to tweak the 4G LTE spectrum strategy that underpins its rural, state-route coverage area. The operator is actively shifting traffic away from 700 MHz, while expanding its usage of 850 MHz.
Note: All testing in this report is based on data collected from off-the-shelf smartphones, with measurements pulled from the Android operating system and device modem logs. The standard results and awards sections focus on application-layer measurements, which are designed to reflect real-world user experience, while the Analyst Deep Dive focuses on physical-layer measurements, which are better suited for detailed technical analysis. Because application-layer and physical-layer measurements capture performance differently, metrics in the Analyst Deep Dive may differ from those reported elsewhere in this report.