April Report From Ookla: ‘A Return to mmWave 5G’

Mike Dano, in a long (too long, I say) report for Ookla (makers of the nifty Speedtest app):

Further, few other countries in the world followed in the mmWave footsteps of the U.S., with international spectrum regulators instead putting a focus on releasing mid-band spectrum for 5G.

However, mmWave networks haven’t disappeared. New drive test data from Ookla’s RootMetrics, coupled with crowdsourced information from Ookla’s Speedtest Insights, shows the ongoing growth of mmWave 5G networks in the U.S., as well as the remarkable performance characteristics of those systems.

  • Across all of RootMetrics’ testing in the second half of 2025, in both urban (metro) and rural (state) areas, mmWave showed up in 2.2% of Verizon’s samples. For AT&T, that figure was 0.2%. For T-Mobile, that figure was almost 0% (and as a result, this report will mainly focus on Verizon and AT&T).

  • Verizon’s mmWave connections showed up in 75 markets in the first half of 2024 (out of a total of 125 markets), a figure that rose to 91 in the second half of 2025. That’s almost triple the number of markets where RootMetrics recorded AT&T mmWave systems in the second half of 2025. 5G mmWave from T-Mobile, meanwhile, only showed up in 1 market covered by RootMetrics technicians during the second half of 2025.

  • Most mmWave samples were obtained within 150 meters (about 500 feet) of a mmWave transmission site, reflecting the spectrum’s relatively diminutive coverage area. However, download speeds over mmWave connections reached beyond 1 Gbps in some markets.

  • Denver, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Boston are top mmWave cities for Verizon. Roughly 60% of RootMetrics’ outdoor testing samples landed on Verizon’s mmWave in these cities in the second half of 2025.

So mmWave is almost entirely a U.S. thing, and within the U.S. mostly a Verizon thing and sort of an AT&T thing.

Previously: A year ago I linked to an Ookla report on the iPhone 16e’s cellular performance, it being the first iPhone to ship with an Apple C-series modem. Performance was very good!

★ Thursday, 2 July 2026