Test and Measurement: AT&T cites Ookla for fastest network claim; Ookla responds: Yes, but …

AT&T recently claimed “fastest national network” status, based on crowdsourced, device-based Ookla Speedtest data — and this week, Ookla responded with a blog entry that provided more insights on the data and a subtle “slow your roll” to the carrier. According to AT&T’s press release, “results from Speedtest show our speeds improved by more than 15% over the first three months of 2019, while the previous leaders’ speeds plateaued. Factors include our expansion of 5G Evolution from 25 markets at the end of 2017 to nationwide availability just over a year later. In fact, speeds in 5G Evolution areas are up to twice as fast as AT&T’s standard LTE service on average. This 5G Evolution foundation, as evidenced by these results, enables us to deliver faster speeds now and allows us to upgrade to 5G more quickly. “We are also making substantial investments for the benefit of FirstNet— the nationwide public safety communications platform,” the carrier said, adding that it has been “laser-focused on expanding the reach of FirstNet and our investments are paying off for FirstNet subscribers” with Band 14 spectrum deployed in more than 500 markets. Non-FirstNet customer devices can use that spectrum as well, although they get bumped off it in the event that FirstNet users need the capacity.