5G has improved mobile experiences but its infancy means the best is yet to come: report

The world saw a new era of internet connectivity when the United States and South Korea became the first countries to launch a commercial 5G network in April 2019.

Numerous nations followed in their footsteps and joined the global impact, according to a report by Opernsignal examining the effects of 5G.

The report found average download speeds have increased across the globe.

Speeds in 98 percent of the 5G market have also increased at the slowest hour of the day. Speed drops because of the increased use of mobile data in the evening, typically between 8 and 9pm or 9 and 10pm.

In Canada, average download speeds almost doubled with the launch of 5G during the slowest hour of the day. Speeds increased from 28.4Mbps to 54.7Mbps.

But this wasn’t the case for every market. The report points out that the size of improvements varies greatly because of the uneven distribution of 5G. For example, in 12 markets, including Puerto Rico and Kuwait, the speed was twice as fast during the slowest hour of the day in 2018 compared to 2021.

In other markets, including Belgium and Singapore, the speed only increased by a quarter at most.

The download speed in Canada was 42.5Mbps before 5G was launched. In the fourth quarter of 2021, this number has increased to 62Mbps. According to the report, Canada offers the fourth-best download experience across 100 different markets, down from its previous position of third.

Despite all the improvements 5G has brought, Opensignal says the best of the network is still to come.

They expect speeds to continue to rise as more spectrum becomes available, including in markets that already have 5G.

More versions of 5G services will also release, as we saw with 4G.

When 4G first rolled out, smartphones had to utilize the 3G network for phone calls since they could only connect to one 4G spectrum band. Now 4G phones can be used to make and receive calls and connect to multiple spectrum bands, creating a faster experience.

The report notes numerous versions of 5G are being worked on and will release soon.

Image credit: ShutterStock

Source: Opensignal