I Compared 5g Network Signals Of Verizon, T-mobile, And At&t At A Baseball Stadium - Here's The Winner

Adam Doud/ZDNET

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Last week, while my beloved Cubbies were fighting for their playoff lives, I decided to spot really speeds were doing connected nan 3 biggest carriers successful nan US. Since my hometown of Chicago was one of nan first trial beds for 5G, I've been maintaining an liking successful it passim my career.

You see, backmost erstwhile 5G was still successful its infancy, we were sold 2 large promises astir 5G -- velocity and capacity. For speed, nan biggest illustration we were fixed was "You tin download an full movie while you beryllium connected nan tarmac waiting to return off! Well, concerns surrounding 5G and airdrome safety quickly quashed those dreams. 

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The different committedness was capacity. The committedness was "you tin spell to a performance and still watercourse to your friends backmost home" and yadda yadda. So far, successful my experience, that has very overmuch not been nan case. Any clip I find myself successful an amusement parkland aliases a ballgame, my telephone becomes a bully camera, arsenic agelong arsenic I don't effort to nonstop photos to anyone. It's been a while since I've tally into that situation, truthful I wanted to return nan somesthesia these days.

When nan Cubs precocious to nan Wild Card playoffs, I saw an opportunity. Cubs games are typically well-represented, but considering nan past clip they played successful beforehand of a location crowd successful nan playoffs was backmost successful 2017, I wanted to spot really these networks handled maine hanging astir pinch 41,000 of my closest friends. Packing 3 identical Pixel 10 Pros, I headed down for immoderate nosy astatine nan aged ballpark — from nan extracurricular because getting tickets was impossible.

The crippled plan

Since postulation astir Wrigley Field (and anyplace wrong a three-mile radius) is perilous astatine nan champion of times, I headed complete to Wrigley Field from 10 miles distant (hi, mom) connected my Engwe LE 20 electrical motorcycle -- broadside note: I thrust this motorcycle much than my car during nan summertime months. 

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Fortunately (or unfortunately), I sewage a spot of a precocious start, truthful erstwhile nan first transportation arrived astatine 2:08, I recovered myself astir 4.8 miles away. That's really OK, because I wanted to get a baseline for nan networks earlier I moved wrong scope of nan park. 

Once I was astatine nan park, I was amazed astatine nan deficiency of ft postulation extracurricular nan stadium. Granted, this was a time game, truthful location was little socializing extracurricular nan park. Beyond ft traffic, nan biggest obstacles I anticipated that mightiness effect connectivity were nan stadium itself and each nan group wrong it trying to livestream aliases stock videos of their views from nan seats.

So astatine nan area of Lawrence and Pulaski, I ran my first tests.

Location 1: Lawrence and Pulaski

San Diego sewage disconnected to a basking commencement pinch a Jackson Merrill sacrifice alert successful nan first inning to thrust successful Fernando Tatis Jr. The Cubs could not retaliate against Dylan Cease, truthful I was still 2.3 miles from Wrigley Field astatine nan area of Lincoln and Wilson erstwhile nan 2nd inning started.

Location 2: Lincoln and Wilson

By then, Andrew Kittredge had near nan game, his domiciled of "opener" finished, and Japanese prima pitcher Shota Iminaga had entered arsenic nan existent starter for nan game. For nan record, I don't for illustration openers, but I'm besides not a Major League manager, truthful I don't get a vote. Nothing happened successful nan 2nd inning, but by nan opening of nan 3rd inning, I'd arrived astatine nan beforehand gross of Wrigley Field for my first tests connected site, and beatified Toledo!

Location 3: Front gate

Those are nary misplaced decimals -- those are four-digit download speeds from some Verizon and AT&T. I'll spare you nan remainder of nan shot recaps for present connected out, but from present I moved to nan correct section gate.

Location 4: Right-field gate

At this gate, T-Mobile refused to tally a velocity trial astatine all, failing to moreover link to nan server. That's not great, but it would person a chance astatine redemption later successful nan game. Still, you tin spot nan crowd whitethorn person been opening to return a toll. On to nan near section gate!

Location 5: Left-field gate

Fortunately. At nan near section gate, location was a TV connected successful a barroom that I could spot from wherever I was standing. Also, this is wherever I ran my first download test. Using nan aforesaid 3 phones, I downloaded nan aforesaid 2GB record from my individual Google Drive. It was a 4K video record from a caller video task I shot. Here are nan times, formatted successful minutes and seconds.

From here, I decided I wanted to get 1 much baseline, truthful for nan 5th inning, I headed complete to nan lakefront, which is conscionable astir a mile distant from nan park. 

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Being separated from nan crowd, nan networks behaved erstwhile again, moreover if nan Padres did not -- they scored different 2 runs.

Location 6: Lakefront

Once again, I headed backmost to nan ballpark to spot what nan crowd had to opportunity astir those numbers. They did not agree. As I stood by nan entranceway to nan bleachers, pinch nan borderline creepy tribute to Harry Carey, I took different reference astatine nan apical of nan 6th inning.

Location 7: Bleachers

Adam Doud/ZDNET

Once again, T-Mobile was not participating, truthful I decided to caput backmost to nan correct section entranceway to spot if it was conscionable a Sheffield Avenue thing. It was not.

Location 8: Sheffield Avenue

Here lies our first enigma -- well, 2nd mystery, actually. The first enigma is really Eddie Vedder (yes, Pearl Jam Eddie Vedder) talked his measurement into singing "Take Me Out to nan Ballgame" 2 days successful a row. The 2nd enigma is really T-Mobile decided not to play astatine each connected my first sojourn to this spot, virtually 30 minutes ago, and now it's beating nan pants disconnected of its 2 competitors.

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Anyway, for my past test, I headed to Gallagher Way, which is simply a benignant of intermezo spot for Cubs summons holders extracurricular of nan park. Gallagher Way is besides a celebrated spot for non-ticket holders owed to nan elephantine Jumbotron that broadcasts nan games. That's wherever I stayed for nan past test, which took 2 innings for a peculiar logic I'll get to successful a moment. Here are nan velocity trial results:

Location 9: Gallagher Way

I spent truthful overmuch clip astatine Gallagher Way because I besides ran my 2nd download velocity trial there, and AT&T decided it didn't really consciousness for illustration moving connected anything. I had to extremity nan download trial aft 12 minutes, during which it only completed astir 75% of nan download because by then, nan crippled had ended, and we were each sad. 

More importantly, though, group were starting to flood retired of nan park, and I simply could not enactment wherever I was.

After I near nan park, I wanted to get 1 past baseline, truthful erstwhile I sewage to nan area of Lawrence and Clark, astir 2.5 miles away, I ran 1 past velocity trial and 1 past download test. Here are nan results:

Location 10: Lawrence and Clark

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

Well, first of all, cellular networks are finicky things. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of factors that will find really accelerated your telephone will beryllium astatine immoderate fixed time. One second, you get nary signal. Next, you're speeding done nan accelerated lane. Is that because 39,000 different group each decided to put down their phones and singing a opus together? Probably not.

The reality is, though, that web congestion perfectly tin beryllium a awesome facet successful slowing down your phone. Every clip I drifted distant from nan park, things sewage a batch better. So congestion is surely a factor, but it's decidedly not nan only factor.

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Of nan 3 networks, Verizon had nan fastest download velocity astatine 2,666 Mbps, and it wasn't moreover close. AT&T was nan 2nd fastest astatine nan aforesaid location pinch 1,299 Mbps. T-Mobile's velocity topped retired astatine 835 Mbps distant from nan park, but successful nan area astir nan park, it maxed retired astatine 184 Mbps.

Interestingly enough, T-Mobile seemed to beryllium nan bearer astir affected by nan crowd -- and that tracks pinch my ain experience. Away from nan park, nan bearer managed speeds successful nan 300s, 400s, and moreover 800s, but erstwhile I sewage extracurricular nan park, that dropped to azygous aliases double digits. Speaking of which, here's really often each bearer deed single, double, and triple digits:

Verizon ne'er deed azygous digits and deed triple digits nan astir than immoderate nan carrier. Does that make Verizon nan clear winner? That's an arguable point. Well played, Verizon. 

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I contacted each 3 carriers, and I'll update this article when/if they respond. Generally, it's important to admit that this is simply a mini sample size. This is web capacity successful a confined area during a peculiar three-hour stretch, and it isn't suggestive of wide web performance. 

But it paints a picture, 1 that is accordant pinch my acquisition arsenic a T-Mobile customer. Put simply, erstwhile a batch of group stitchery successful 1 spot -- shot games, amusement parks, concerts -- networks tin struggle. That's still a point contempt nan promises of 5G that are almost 7 years old. Maybe nan Cubs will person amended luck than nan networks truthful far.