RootMetrics Releases 2nd Half 2014 US Mobile Network Performance Review; Verizon Maintains #1 Overall Ranking, Race Heating Up on Many Levels

BELLEVUE, Wash., Feb. 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- RootMetrics®, the standard for independent mobile performance information, today released the results from its 2nd Half 2014 US Mobile Network Performance Review, the industry's most comprehensive study of mobile network performance. This is the third time RootMetrics has offered a report of this magnitude, with insights and comparisons of network performance provided across all the spaces of a consumer's mobile life. The comprehensive report shows important performance changes across three complementary levels: the entire United States, each of the 50 states, and the 125 largest metro areas in the country.

During the 2nd half of 2014, RootMetrics testers drove nearly 293,000 miles, which is further than the distance from the Earth to the moon, visited 6,200 indoor locations, and conducted 5.7 million tests across all 50 states using the same phones consumers can buy from the carriers' stores. The RootMetrics 2^nd Half 2014 Mobile Performance Review summarizes results from its comprehensive, scientific testing to provide the most complete and accurate picture of mobile network performance - at the national, state, and metro levels – available anywhere.

Performance at the National RootScore level

The latest report found that Verizon is still leading the mobile network race in nearly all aspects of testing. The network again swept in the Overall performance, Reliability and Speed categories. Verizon was also the top-performing network for Data and Call. AT&T was at the top in Text and finished a close second in every other category. Sprint and T-Mobile trailed behind, showing there are still two distinct tiers for the major carriers.

While Sprint and T-Mobile remain in the second tier, both carriers are cutting into the lead of Verizon and AT&T. Thanks to its significant technology upgrades and greatly improved call performance, Sprint showed strong progress, leapfrogging T-Mobile to finish in third place in the Overall National RootScore and surpassing Verizon for second place in the Text category. While T-Mobile finished fourth in the Overall National RootScore, its strong data network and speed performances helped it surpass Sprint to finish third in these categories. It is important to note that while T-Mobile offered strong performance in major urban areas, the National RootScore Award also takes into consideration performance outside of large metros, where T-Mobile still has room for improvement.

"It's no longer a luxury to have fast and reliable mobile service, it's a requirement," said Bill Moore, CEO of RootMetrics. "Whether a person is calling into a work meeting from the road, streaming videos, or simply looking to text a friend to say they'll be late, consumers are no longer satisfied with spotty connections and slow speeds. Our scientifically-rigorous testing and reports give consumers easy-to-understand, fiercely independent information about mobile performance in everyday life conditions, providing a true picture of the mobile consumer experience they can use to make better-informed mobile decisions. And the good news is that our testing shows every network is getting better. "

In addition to the Overall performance category, the 2nd Half 2014 US Mobile Performance Review shows which networks provided the most reliable and fastest experience, as well as each network's performance across data, call and text testing.

US National RootScore Overall Performance rankings:

1. Verizon (93.5)
2. AT&T (91.3)
3. Sprint (86.3)
4. T-Mobile (83.5)

Overall performance scoring is broken down in two ways. First, RootMetrics offers two holistic indices that give consumers a clear view of each network's performance in the key areas of network reliability and network speed. The Reliability Index is based on how reliably calls could be made and texts delivered, as well as how often RootMetrics could make a data network connection and then stay connected throughout testing of all performance categories. The Speed Index includes how quickly a network could download and upload files, send emails, perform typical web and app-related tasks, and send/receive texts.

Overall scoring is additionally broken down into Call, Data, and Text RootScores. Looking at the network Reliability and Speed indices in conjunction with Overall RootScores offers the most comprehensive look at a typical mobile experience.

Verizon ranked highest in both network reliability and network speed.

Reliability Index rankings:

1. Verizon (95.1)
2. AT&T (93.4)
3. Sprint (90.6)
4. T-Mobile (84.8)

Speed Index rankings:

1. Verizon (88.7)
2. AT&T (85.2)
3. T-Mobile (78.6)
4. Sprint (70.7)

Data Performance rankings:  

1. Verizon (94.1)
2. AT&T (91.2)
3. T-Mobile (81.3)
4. Sprint (81.0)

Call Performance rankings:

1. Verizon (93.2)
2. AT&T (91.0)
3. Sprint (90.2)
4. T-Mobile (84.4)

Text Performance rankings:

1. AT&T (92.9)
2. Sprint (92.4)
3. Verizon (92.2)
4. T-Mobile (89.4)

State Performance Summarized

In addition to its stellar national performance, Verizon also excelled in the state rankings. On the state level, Verizon outright won or shared for the Overall RootScore Award in 48 out of 50 states, and won or shared an astounding 257 of 300 total performance awards. AT&T finished second in the tally of state awards, but performance in tests was close to that of Verizon. The other big story at the state level is Sprint's improvement. Sprint finished with 32 (won or shared) total state awards, more than doubling its tally from the last report, after making great strides in its network reliability and improving both call and text performances. T-Mobile also showed improvement, moving from one award last time to four (won or shared) awards this time and winning the speed index outright for Rhode Island. Now that T-Mobile has firmly established its LTE rollout at the metro level (see below), we anticipate that improved performance could start to push out beyond the urban areas and transitory reliability issues related to the upgrade process could also improve.

Metro Performance Summarized

Verizon also led the metro award tally by a large margin, winning or tying for 1^st place in 113 of the 125 Overall RootScore Awards at the metro level. AT&T showed solid improvement in speed performance, adding 17 1^st place wins or ties in speed index results from the 1^st half of 2014. Behind the two leaders, the metro race is heating up considerably when looking at our RootScore Award tallies. Both T-Mobile and Sprint gained or remained neutral across all award categories, taking awards from the top two. This shift shouldn't be a surprise. Networks typically upgrade in dense, metro areas first, making major metros the frontlines of carrier change and performance battles. T-Mobile's upgrades have helped it stay ahead of Sprint in the Metro Awards tally and move into a neck-and-neck race with Verizon when looking at median download speed performance, a significant change to what we saw last year. T-Mobile also recorded the fastest median upload speed for any network. It is clear that T-Mobile is often offering top-notch speeds in most metro markets across the United States. Keep in mind, though, that Verizon continues to show more consistent speed performance than T-Mobile. T-Mobile also showed signs of improved reliability, but an increased block call rate held the network back. This reliability challenge, however, could be temporary as the network continues its upgrade plans. As those upgrades finish, reliability could improve as well.

Improved reliability contributed to a dramatic increase in the number of RootScore Awards for Sprint as well. Sprint increased its Call RootScore Award count by 47, its Text RootScore Award count by 34, and its first-place finishes in our Reliability Index by 25. Keep in mind that Sprint had the most room for improvement, but it should also be noted that Sprint made the biggest jump of any network from the first to the second half when looking at award tallies. The good news is that if metro results are an indication of trends to come, consumers could be seeing faster and more reliable network performance in 2015.

The RootMetrics 2nd Half 2014 US Mobile Network Performance Review offers a detailed and easy-to-understand summary of network performance for the entire United States, within each of the 50 states, as well as in the 125 largest metro areas in the country.

RootMetrics also offers consumers an online CoverageMap that combines professional and crowdsourced results and a free downloadable app that allows people to test performance down to the street level. RootMetrics understands how important mobile performance is to daily life, and mobile consumers can rely on the company to provide information that helps them make more informed mobile decisions.

For details on the RootMetrics testing methodology, visit: http://www.rootmetrics.com/us/methodology.

About RootMetrics®

RootMetrics® is an independent mobile analytics firm that offers insights into the consumer mobile experience. RootMetrics provides data on mobile network performance to help people make more informed mobile decisions. The company offers its RootScore® Report series for the nation, states, metropolitan markets, and airports, as well as its downloadable CoverageMap app. To ensure that RootMetrics testing reflects real-world mobile usage, testing is conducted based on where, when, and how consumers use their devices most often. 

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