Though there are regional and anecdotal estimates for quality on this front, OpenSignal has kicked off a nationwide analysis of the mobile video experience, measuring the quality of video consumers see when streaming over their mobile connections. The benchmarking shows all of the Big Four landing within the “fair” category in the ratings – note, not “good” – with Verizon leading the video pack.

Verizon users enjoyed the highest overall video experience score of 50.6 (out of 100) in the study, followed by T-Mobile at 48.2. Sprint and AT&T were some way behind with scores just above 40.

“Fair means that mobile connections weren’t able to support high-resolution video without prolonged stalling and long wait times, but were able to handle low-resolution video with few problems,” OpenSignal explained. “None of the US operators were even close to achieving a perfect score.”

The results aren’t definitive—in February a different firm named AT&T as the best network for mobile video.

Mobile operators in the US face a Catch-22 in that all of them are extensively vested in mobile video as part of their overall service mix. The move mobile video that becomes available, the more users consume it – but it leaves them with challenges when it comes to delivering enough bandwidth to adequately support large quantities of mobile video.