Spectrum scored highest in Opensignal’s assessment of broadband reliability with 741 points on a 100 to 1,000 point scale.
The assessment used Opensignal’s new Broadband Reliability Experience metric, which is technology agnostic. The analysis included five service providers that reasonably could claim to have a nationwide footprint.
Spectrum (part of Charter) was followed by Xfinity (part of Comcast, at 710 points), Verizon (625 points), AT&T (546 points), and T-Mobile (525 points).
Opensignal’s analysis pitted providers’ reliability against each other in overlapping markets. The results suggest that there are two levels of reliability. “Xfinity has a more reliable broadband experience than all three telco providers in areas where their service territories overlap — as does Spectrum,” wrote analyst Rupert Bapty in a blog post about the study.
“AT&T outperforms its fellow telecom providers, scoring higher than both T-Mobile and Verizon. Verizon wins against T-Mobile in areas where both are available. While both have a significant number of FWA [fixed wireless] subscribers, Verizon’s majority of fiber subscribers raises its Reliability Experience score.”
Opensignal offered a matrix illustrating which — though not where — service providers directly compete. Three of the companies (AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile) compete against all four others, while Xfinity and Spectrum, because they are cable companies largely controlled by franchising, only compete against the three telcos. No consumer has access to all five providers.
Technologies assessed in the analysis included fiber (FTTx), xDSL, cable, and fixed wireless access (FWA) via 4G and 5G networks. Opensignal measures the ability of a user to connect to the internet (connectivity), the ability to finish typical tasks (completion), and that the task can be done typically well (sufficiency).
The firm says that it will follow up with a report that will focus on the top 50 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs).