Testing and measurement: Ookla breaks down a transitioning carrier market

Midband spectrum has helped T-Mock with 5G leads, but the cost of cellular services and devices could be more important for growth than pending C-band deployments, Okla said in a new language. Blog post.

Ookla’s Mark Giles, Ookla’s chief industrial analyst, writes that according to Ookla’s calculations, T-Mobile US still surpasses Verizon in terms of overall 5G network speeds. The T-Mobile US Midband has been able to jump into 5G deployments because of the 2.5 GHz spectrum it acquired with Sprint, with the 600 MHz spectrum it won at auction, and as a base layer for 5G coverage.

The additional deployment of C-Band spectrum by Verizon and, to a lesser extent, AT&T may improve their network performance in the coming quarters, but the addition of their customers may be further affected by the cost due to the impact of inflation on their customers. .

“As economic headwinds form in the United States, with inflation rising to a 40-year high, we expect the dynamics of the US wireless market to change,” Giles wrote.

T-Mobile US has seen strong customer growth this year, but AT&T also lacks 2.5 GHz or wider first-tier C-Band spectrum, and some overall network performance metrics, such as 5G, have outperformed the other two carriers. Speed. But “network performance is not the only reason for postpaid net phone additions,” writes Giles, adding that AT & T is also being aggressively priced and although its maximum 5G performance may be lagging behind, it still has significantly stronger LTE performance as well as more variants than 5G availability.

But amid rising wage costs, AT&T CEO John Stankey has raised the possibility of at least a price increase. Verizon could benefit if the career goes ahead with it, Giles writes. Meanwhile, US Cellular could enter and Dish Network is finally getting its 5G calls in a row to ramp up – so the competition is growing. “These changes could begin to accelerate in terms of postpaid net phone integration between AT&T and Verizon and other regional carriers, if they can expand the coverage of their 5G networks and create their C-band fuel speed advantage.” He concludes.