- All three major US carriers have true 5G nationwide coverage as of last year.
- T-Mobile customers have access 71.2% of the time, while Verizon and AT&T lag behind.
- T-Mobile leads in lower latency and is fairly strong, though not the top, when it comes to quality.
While we’re used to seeing the little 5G at the top of our phone screens, getting to this point was anything but smooth. At the start of 5G, coverage often relied on a retrofit of LTE. T-Mobile managed to make it to market with the first true 5G. Verizon and AT&T lagged behind, but now we’re a year into all three major US carriers offering nationwide networks. Just as this anniversary hits, a report has come out that compares all three.
First, let’s establish what is meant by true 5G or, as it’s often referred to, 5G standalone (5G SA). For 5G SA performance, there needs to be 5G infrastructure the whole way through instead of a network cobbled together from some new 5G tech and a 4G LTE core. T-Mobile brought 5G SA to a limited number of customers in 2019 and ramped up to full nationwide coverage in April 2025. AT&T initially began 5G SA coverage in 2022, and officially launched its nationwide network in October of last year. And Verizon started rolling it out in 2022 and largely has nationwide 5G SA coverage now.
