AT&T’s and Verizon’s scores take off around the U.S. airports after 5G interference mitigations ease

Open Signal users on AT&T and Verizon’s networks have enjoyed substantial boosts in their download speeds around U.S. airports after July 1, 2023, when the carriers were to increase power levels on the C-band around the airport areas — but still lag behind T-Mobile's 5G users' speeds. While both carriers were able to reduce the mitigations around the use of the C-band around the airport areas in July 2023 — AT&T and Verizon also gained full access to their C-band spectrum holdings in August 2023, after satellite companies cleared the band early. Opensignal observed a general uplift in 5G Download Speed scores nationwide, with AT&T’s 5G Download Speed score increasing by 45.1% and Verizon’s — by 29.8% for the 90-day data collection period starting on August 1, 2023, compared to Q2 2023. Still, the relative boost around the selected airports is significantly higher for both AT&T and Verizon than the national uplift, showing the combined effect of the additional spectrum and fewer restrictions on power levels on the mobile network experience of our users. Soaring AT&T and Verizon’s 5G Download Speed scores positively influence the carriers’ overall Download Speed Experience results. AT&T’s average overall download speeds have risen by 30.4% around the analyzed airports (compared to 12.6% nationally), while Verizon’s — by 22.1% (compared to 7.1% nationally). Consequently, the gap between these two carriers and T-Mobile has narrowed around the airports as well — from 2.3-2.4 times faster average overall download speeds for T-Mobile than AT&T and Verizon to less than twice as fast, after additional C-band spectrum became available and interference mitigation measures relaxed.