Verizon faced headwinds on its 5G performance in latest figures from IHS Markit’s RootMetrics benchmark, with AT&T ranked higher on download speeds and T-Mobile US rated as offering better availability.

The RootMetrics analysis previously ranked Verizon as the US leader 15 times in a row, but its latest research highlighted rivals were closing in on 5G.

Based on data collected from drive tests in 45 US cities, RootMetrics revealed it was able to record results for T-Mobile’s network in all of them, in 44 for AT&T and 43 Verizon.

When it comes to 5G reliability, Verizon and AT&T were both ahead of T-Mobile, the RootMetrics team reported.

A separate 5G speed-test by Ookla using crowdsourced data found T-Mobile had the fastest average 5G download rate during Q1 at 82.35Mb/s, followed by AT&T (76.6Mb/s) and Verizon (67.24Mb/s).

Ookla also measured the time 5G-capable phones were actually connected to a next-generation network, with T-Mobile’s availability at around 66 per cent compared with about 33 per cent each for AT&T and Verizon.