The search for the best
T-Mobile was the hot favorite in Q3.
It all started in June when T-Mobile bragged that it had the best network. The company had never made such a bold claim before, forcing its competitors to reassert their dominance.
Those beefs reached a fever pitch recently with AT&T and Verizon putting out ads to convince consumers that T-Mobile‘s claims were based on “random awards” and “untruths.” AT&T even called out T-Mobile for its “meaningless price-lock.”
With AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon all citing different analytics firms to claim they are the best, none of them is technically lying, which is why it can be hard to determine which carrier is actually the best.
T-Mobile is trying to settle the debate by reminding everyone that it had record-setting earnings in Q3 and more people are joining it “than at any point in our history.”
T-Mobile gained a lot more customers than AT&T (and probably Verizon) in Q3
T-Mobile, which is the second-largest carrier in the US, added 1 million new mobile phone customers in Q3. AT&T, on the other hand, only attracted 405,000 new phone subscribers during the same period. Verizon is yet to report its earnings, but given that it gave its last CEO the boot abruptly before announcing results for Q3, it appears that this was its third straight quarter of customer losses.
All I’ll say is when you start taking potshots at people, then you must be under a lot of pressure.
Srini Gopalan, T-Mobile’s incoming CEO, October 2025
Customers generally gravitate towards the best
While making a conclusive statement about who has the best network remains elusive, the fact that more customers are flocking to T-Mobile than AT&T and Verizon, and that both of them have teamed up against the same company, does lend weight to T-Mobile‘s claim about keeping rivals on their toes.
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