T-Mobile beats Sprint in KC-area network tests, moving into tie with Verizon

T-Mobile US has supplanted Sprint in the Kansas City area in network testing results from RootMetrics.

Testing found that T-Mobile and Verizon tied for best overall performance in the market, according to RootMetrics’ Kansas City report for the second half of 2016. Sprint and AT&T were close behind the two leaders, and tied with each other, but trailed nonetheless.

RootMetrics scored T-Mobile at 98.1 and Verizon at 98.0 in the overall performance rankings. Sprint and AT&T each scored 97.1 for overall performance.

At midyear, Sprint had been tied for second with T-Mobile in RootMetrics’ report for the first half of 2016, which Verizon had led.

Sprint spokeswoman Adrienne Norton said the Kansas City ranking showed that the four national carriers were close competitors. Sprint’s national advertising has included the claim that all networks are great and that consumers should focus on prices.

“Kansas City is a highly competitive market and this latest report clearly shows that all networks are great with a gap in performance that is very small,” Norton said in an email.

Although RootMetrics is one of several network testers, Sprint has generally highlighted its results. For example, CEO Marcelo Claure crowed in mid-2015 when Sprint had tied Verizon for the best overall network performance in Kansas City.

Network speed and data were the key differences among networks in RootMetrics’ latest tests in the area.

RootMetrics ranked all four carriers as tied for network reliability in Kansas City, surpassing Sprint’s advertising claims that its network nationally is within 1 percent of Verizon’s for reliability. All four also tied for call and texting.

Verizon, however, topped the rankings in Kansas City for network speed and data performance. Sprint was fourth in both of those. T-Mobile’s scores in those two categories were close to Verizon’s.

Still, RootMetrics noted that Sprint’s median download speeds in its hometown had increased to 22.1 megabits per second from 15.9 Mbps in its previous test. That topped T-Mobile’s download speeds, which RootMetrics said had increased to 20.2 Mbps from 14.9 Mbps.

Sprint had promised faster network speeds in the Kansas City area by the end of October. It had demonstrated the speedier technology during a Royals game at Kauffman Stadium.

Norton said Sprint continues to add speed to its network with “three-channel carrier aggregation,” which was the technology it demonstrated at the baseball game.

She also noted Sprint’s recently announced “breakthrough” in technology that will expand the reach of its high-capacity wireless signals by up to 30 percent, particularly indoors “where the majority of wireless traffic is generated.”

This story was originally published January 4, 2017 at 11:46 AM with the headline "T-Mobile beats Sprint in KC-area network tests, moving into tie with Verizon."