The UK has the worst 5G speeds, with the U.S not far behind. That’s according to new data from 12 countries in tests conducted by Opensignal, reported 9to5 Mac.
The UK was worst, with average download speeds of 32.6Mbps, with the US almost as bad at 33.4Mbps. For reference, the US speed is only 1.8 times faster than 4G. This contrasts with the fastest 5G speeds, found in Saudi Arabia and Canada. In Saudi, average download speed was 144Mbps, or 14 times faster than 4G. Canada delivered 90Mbps, perhaps not surprising when you consider that its 4G speeds are already twice as fast as in the US. The US did better when it came to how often you’ll find yourself on 5G, at 19.3% of the time, putting it in first place. The UK was last, with a pathetic 4.5% of the time. Saudi Arabia again led the way, delivering a 5G connection 34% of the time.
Check It Out: UK Has Worst 5G Speeds, U.S. Almost as Bad
As a resident of the Far North of Scotland, working and reliable 3G everywhere would be infinitely preferable to any other number preceding the letter G. A signal you could make a call on would be nice. Some places still have no signal, some places have great 4G coverage, but there’s no such thing as a universally accessible network from outside, let alone inside.
As noted in the original article, speed depends highly on which of the three 5G bands are in use.
— Low-band (~600MHz) gets around 150Mbps max — not much faster than 4G, but can use existing cell towers. T-Mobile and AT&T are rolling this out, which is how they get wide coverage, but little speed boost.
— Mid-band (~3.5GHz) gets around 500Mbps max, but needs closer towers. Sprint (now T-Mobile) is rolling this in a few places in the US, while most other countries consider this the “ground floor” for 5G service.
— High-band (mmWave) gets around 1Gbps max, but needs towers VERY close: every 1000 feet or so. All of the US carriers are placing this in high-density urban zones (cities) but some like Verizon are also installing this in residential neighborhoods as a potential competitor to wired Cable service in homes.
Mashing the three together into one average figure is in many ways like measuring the average speed of vehicles on the roads, including freeways + city streets + cars stopped at traffic signals. Pay attention to which one you have before making direct comparisons.