A new study from crowdsourced mobile benchmarking firm Opensignal has examined how mobile broadband download speeds have changed, across 100 countries, since 5G networks were introduced. For example, average 4G and 5G download speeds in the UK were 39.7Mbps at the end of 2021, up from 21.7Mbps at the start of 2019.
The new report is based on crowdsourced data gathered from users of mobile devices (Smartphones etc.). The results, which are usually collected via the company’s app, were then processed to reveal how network performance has changed, since 2019, in each of the listed countries.
In 95 of 100 global markets, smartphone users have seen their average download speed increase between the first quarter of 2019 – before 5G – and the last quarter of 2021. At the top of the table is South Korea (no surprise there), where average download speeds were 129.7Mbps at the end of 2021 (up from 52.4Mbps at the start of 2019).
Similarly, Opensignal’s users’ speeds more than doubled in Germany, rising from 22.6 to 48.7Mbps, and it was a similar story in the Philippines (from 7 to 15.1Mbps), Saudi Arabia (13.6 to 31.1Mbps), and in Thailand (5.7 to 17.4Mbps) – all of which are now growing 5G markets. Sadly, the study didn’t reflect network coverage or spectrum use in each country, thus there’s only very limited context (they aren’t all at the same stage of development).
Meanwhile, it’s noted that mobile operators in Switzerland and the UK were among the first to launch 5G in 2019 (e.g. EE). Both markets have seen related increases in their international position, with Switzerland going from joint 7th to 5th, and the UK from joint 30th to joint 24th across 100 markets.
We would very much have liked to see a summary of mobile broadband speeds via 5G only networks, but instead they’ve just compared the impact across both 4G and 5G networks combined. In other words, the 4G speeds below will be dragging those averages down.
Opensignal Mobile Data Speeds (4G + 5G) by Country – 2019 vs 2021
this is where they need to use the media, not mean average, because the 5G regions will raise the mean average speed whereas most people experience a rather rubbishy 3.5 or 4G speed.
I mean median. sorry.