In the early days of 5G, T-Mobile has scored some convincing wins regarding the launch and expansion of its 5G network. And according to one third-party testing firm, T-Mobile's lead in network size and speed is growing.

Opensignal released its July Quarterly 5G User Experience Report and T-Mobile 5G is the big winner with respect to speed, availability, and reach. Even better for the carrier, it is outpacing the growth of rivals AT&T and Verizon in 5G download speeds.

5G coverage in the U.S. is still a work in progress as carriers work to expand and improve coverage that first began a little over two years ago; as 5G coverage matures, expect to see many position battles. But Opensignal's new report is a useful snapshot of where things stand now, and paints a rosy picture for T-Mobile, which just last month announced that its 5G network is now reaching 300 million people. [Opensignal's testing shows faster download speeds when using 5G from T-Mobile than any other carrier. Between March 16 and June 13, the period covered by this report, Opensignal tabulated T-Mobile's 5G download speeds at 87.5 Mbps. This difference is double what Opensignal reported when it released its 5G findings in April. This difference is double what Opensignal reported when it released its 5G findings in April

Put another way, T-Mobile's average speed has improved by 16.3 Mbps since Opensignal's last report. During the same period, Verizon's 5G download speeds rose 4.5 Mbps, while AT&T's dropped 2.7 Mbps. In addition, the rate of improvement in T-Mobile's download speeds from July to April exceeded the rate of improvement from April to January of this year.

T-Mobile's 5G download speeds are not only faster than its rivals, but Opensignal claims that the signal is reaching more people. The testing firm rated 5G reach on a 10-point scale, giving the Uncarrier a score of 7.1 (up from 6.8 in its April report); AT&T 5G's reach score was 5.5, the largest increase here. Verizon, which initially focused on high-speed deployments in dozens of cities, later launched a nationwide 5G network with the lowest reach score of 3.0.

In terms of availability, T-Mobile customers could get a 5G signal 36.3% of the time according to Opensignal's report, while AT&T's availability reached 22.5%. Verizon's 5G was 10.5%, down from 11.2% in April.

Not all bad news for Verizon, which took the titles of best 5G voice and 5G gaming experience in Opensignal's ratings. According to the testing firm, Big Red outperformed T-Mobile in 5G upload speeds, with 14.2 Mbps compared to T-Mobile's 15.1 Mbps. It also tied AT&T in 5G video experience after AT&T won alone in April.

As these availability rates and sub-1Gbps download speeds show, 5G is far from the promised speeds touted by penetration and 5G advocates. However, T-Mobile can at least get off to a promising early start.