Unlimited Data Plans Blamed for Slower AT&T, Verizon Speeds

Six months ago, AT&T and Verizon introduced unlimited data plans in response to similar plans offered by rivals T-Mobile and Sprint. That's good news for consumers, right? Yes and no.

According to the latest data from OpenSignal, as reported by Recode, unlimited data plans resulted in much greater demand. But the existing network infrastructure needs to cope with that extra demand, so while everyone gets more data for a set price, their mobile speeds have slowed due to congestion.

Verizon was hit the hardest with its 4G speeds dropping by 2Mbps, going from 16.9Mbps to 14.9Mbps. AT&T also fell from 13.9Mbps to 12.9Mbps. That's less of a drop, but they remain slower on average than Verizon based on this data.

AT&T, however, pushed back on the report. "We constantly monitor our network performance. The launch of our unlimited data plans has not impacted wireless speeds on our network," according to an AT&T spokesman.

Verizon, meanwhile, argued that "individual peak speeds from crowd-sourced tests, which OpenSignal does, don't tell the whole story. Results can be impacted by a large range of factors, including pricing plans, location, rural and urban distribution of users, and quality control, [like] how the app interacts with different devices."

Verizon pointed to a recent report from another analytics firm, RootMetrics, which found that "Verizon's performance on the national stage was outstanding in all test categories in the first half of 2017."

"Don't you think the timing is interesting on this announcement...just a few days after RootMetrics announced their drive test results showing we had the best and fastest network, again...while T-Mobile was last, again," a Verizon spokesman said today.

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Fastest Mobile Networks 2017

In the OpenSignal test, T-Mobile took the top spot for 4G speeds with an average of 17.5Mbps, up from 16.7Mbps last year. Sprint also saw an increase from 9Mbps to 9.8Mbps. T-Mobile was predictably thrilled by the results; "Better matters. But BEST sure as hell matters more," said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile.

Of course, in all these tests you have to keep in mind this is an average. Coverage and speeds will vary depending on your specific location, with this variation clear to see from PCMag's Fastest Mobile Networks 2017 tests.

Editor's Note: This story was updated at 2:45 p.m. with comment from Verizon.