New York City has, in aggregate, the fastest mobile networks among the six largest cities in the Eastern half of the country, according to analysis from RootMetrics—and as far as individual networks, Verizon clocked the fastest aggregate network speed. The benchmarking company looked at speed results from its testing across the six most populated cities in the eastern U.S. in the second half of 2020 (Atlanta, Boston, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.) and ranked each one based on aggregate median download speed across 4G, and 5G where it was available.
New York had the fastest aggregate median download speed at 46.3 Mbps — and it wasn’t just the fastest among those six cities, it was the fastest among all of the 125 cities that the company tested during that time period.
RootMetrics also said that “carrier speeds in the city have shown a trend of continuous improvement over the past five years.”
Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. weren’t far behind NYC’s speeds; Miami had the slowest aggregate median download speed among the six cities, but still came in at more than 29 Mbps.
RootMetrics also looked at 5G availability and speeds in the six cities, and concluded that in the NYC metro area, AT&T had the most 5G availability (devices could connect to 5G 54.6% of the time) and the fastest 5G median download speed of 53.1 Mbps. Verizon was singled out as the fastest carrier overall, though, at 72 Mbps.
For an overview of the latest results from Ookla, OpenSignal and RootMetrics, check out this story.
In other test news:
–Keysight Technologies launched a 4G and 5G subscriber session monitoring capability, MobileStack, for its Vision X network packet broker, which it described as “5G-scale quality of service monitoring” that is scalable and can support the needs of QoS monitoring amid booming data volumes in a 5G world.
“Mobile network operators are already dealing with a data explosion, but with 5G, data volumes will push their mobile infrastructure, particularly monitoring probe capacity, beyond its limits,” said Scott Bryden, vice president of Keysight’s operators industry solutions group. “Mobile operators need a solution that enables them to strategically monitor subscribers and network traffic, without driving up costs. MobileStack offers mobile network operators the visibility and control needed to lower costs and gain a competitive advantage while delivering enhanced quality of service to subscribers.”
Keysight has also been focused lately on its effort to support Open RAN development and interoperability testing, this week highlighting its end-to-end portfolio for O-RAN testing and the work it has supported with Chinese antenna and radio unit Zillnk on protocol and RF performance and validation. Keysight has also recently scored work on O-RAN-related testing with Radisys.
–Teledyne Technologies, parent company of Teledyne LeCroy, reported record fourth-quarter and year-end results. Net income for the quarter was up 14.2% to $132.1 million, although net sales were down 3% year-over-year to $834.2 million. The company spent $10.4 million during the fourth quarter on severance, facility consolidation, acquisition and other costs (up to $3.1 million during the same period in 2019) and recorded income tax benefits of $18.8 million, up from $8.3 million in 2019’s fourth quarter.
Teledyne’s instrumentation segments saw its fourth-quarter sales drop by more than 6%, with weaker sales in the company’s marine and environmental instruments outweighing higher sales in its test and measurement instruments.
“We concluded 2020 with the best earnings, operating margin and cash flow in the company’s history,” said Executive Chairman Robert Mehrabian in a statement, adding, “I have never been more excited about Teledyne’s future.” The company is also in the process of acquiring Oregon-based imaging and sensor company Flir for $8 billion.
–National Technical Systems (NTS) turned 60 this week, and the company celebrated by highlighting some of its strategic investments over the past year, including the launch in March of a Remote Test Witnessing System that worked around travel and in-person-visit restrictions as a result of the global pandemic by enabling people to observe testing and connect with subject matter experts without having to physically visit a test lab. NTS also said that it has made “significant investments” over the past several years to expand its international footprint in Canada and Europe.
–PCTel announced a new distribution deal with Synnex, emphasizing that the relationship will bolster the position of the company’s antenna business in supporting industrial IoT across enterprise verticals and the federal and public sectors.
–Viavi Solutions released the results of a study this week that looked at how the pandemic has driven an increase in remote testing in lieu of in-person site visits. Read the full story here.
