Some of the nation’s leading tech hubs ranked near the bottom of the latest mobile network performance rankings from RootMetrics.
The research firm on Thursday released numbers for 10 cities out of the 125 markets studied for its forthcoming U.S. mobile performance report. The initial cities each featured burgeoning technology industries but varied widely in the performance of their wireless networks.
“Strong mobile performance isn’t just a nice-to-have; in these highly connected tech cities, fast and reliable mobile connections are key to both work and play,” RootMetrics analysts wrote.
The study, which incorporates weighted measurements of the networks of Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint, ranked high-tech cities by network reliability, speed and overall performance. Analysts noted that although select carriers were stronger in certain markets, weak performances by their competitors could reduce that city’s overall score.
Austin, Texas, led the 10 tech hubs at No. 16 nationally in overall performance, followed by Seattle at No. 26, San Diego at No. 40 and Washington, D.C., at No. 43. Austin saw the most reliable network, while Seattle led those markets in network speed.
The six remaining markets — including those in Silicon Valley — finished in roughly the bottom third of all 125 areas surveyed.
Denver came in at No. 82, following by San Jose at 88, San Francisco at 97 and Boston at 108. Although San Jose scored well in network speed, it was undone by a ranking of 104 in reliability.
Durham, N.C., and Madison, Wis. — by far the two smallest cities included in the initial list — finished at Nos. 109 and 111, respectively, due to particularly low scores from Sprint’s network compared to their larger counterparts.
The full RootMetrics rankings are scheduled to be released early next month.
Filed Under: Infrastructure
