RootMetrics’ latest analysis of U.S. urban wireless networks saw Midwestern cities both large and small dominate in the second half of 2017.
The survey of the nation’s 125 largest metro areas listed Lansing, Mich. — the 117th-largest market — atop the wireless performance rankings for the second consecutive report.
Kansas City finished second in RootMetrics’ overall standings, followed by another relatively small city —Fort Wayne, Ind. — and the nation’s top-performing large city, Chicago.
Cleveland, Indianapolis, Spokane, Columbus, St. Louis and Knoxville, Tenn., rounded out the top 10.
The research company ranks markets based on weighted scores for Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint networks, and analysts noted that strong networks from one carrier could be effectively negated by poor performances from another.
Most major markets and tech hubs didn’t fare particularly well in the latest report. Metro New York ranked 91st while Los Angeles finished 48th despite significant improvements in download speeds. Many cities with prominent tech economies also reported mixed results, including San Jose at No. 88 and San Francisco at No. 97.
Smaller cities across the Northeast, West Coast and Deep South finished near the bottom of the latest rankings. The lowest five scores were recorded by Scranton, Pa., Worcester, Mass., Santa Rosa, Calif., New York’s Hudson Valley and Bridgeport and Stamford, Conn.
Filed Under: Infrastructure
