• I tested 5G coverage from the big 3 mobile carriers on a road trip - the winner was a surprise Follow ZDNET:Add us as a preferred sourceon Google. • ZDNET’s key takeaways My 5G road trip tests included rigorous testing on three Google Pixel phones. • Signal reliability generally proved good to decent across three major interstate carriers. • Network architecture, including non-standalone 5G, emerged as a factor in deployment. • 5G made a number of promises when it debuted. • The first was the ability to handle excessive capacity.
Article Summaries:
- A recent road‑trip study tested 5G coverage from AT&T, Verizon, and T‑Mobile across central Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee using Google Pixel 10 Pros and an iPhone 17. Over 120,000 data points were collected with the nPerf app, and speed tests were run at 18 stops. Results showed generally strong performance, with most speeds in the double‑digit range and only a few single‑digit occurrences. Surprisingly, one carrier outperformed the others in overall coverage and reliability, a result that contradicted expectations based on typical city‑center performance. The study highlights the importance of network architecture, including non‑standalone 5G, in rural deployment.
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