What should 5G speeds be

[y_p_w]

Just recently switched to an unlimited plan that includes 5G with Cricket. Probably should have done this a while ago, but we had a convoluted family plan where we were on different plans but with a discount for being on one account. But their best deal is with the same regular unlimited plan for multiple lines, which includes 5G while previous plans didn't.

I have an iPhone SE (2022) which is 5G capable. I've tried testing it, and in my neighborhood and several places all it indicates now is 5G, but in some places I see "5G+" which is apparently AT&T's enhanced 5G network. When it says 5G, I haven't been able to get a speed test download faster than maybe 2.5 gbit/sec. But onc place I saw 5G+ and I was getting maybe 140 gbit/sec downloads and maybe 70 gbit/sec uploads.

Not sure what it is, but the 5G speeds seem to be pretty low - even lower than when I was on 4G LTE. Signal strength was pretty low though.

 

[2009Caraman]

2.5 gbit/sec is 2500mbytes/sec. That is pretty dang fast. You sure you have the right units of measurement here?

 

[Creekside]

5G is spotty at our farm, sitting in one particular recliner I will occasionally get 5G. I know when it happens because everything goes to a complete standstill. If I get up and walk away LTE comes back and everything works again.

 

[wwillson]

When it says 5G, I haven't been able to get a speed test download faster than maybe 2.5 gbit/sec. But onc place I saw 5G+ and I was getting maybe 140 gbit/sec downloads and maybe 70 gbit/sec uploads.

You mean Mb/s.

Cellular throughput is a tricky and mystical thing. 5G+ includes C-band, mid-band, and mm wave. They are all fast if you have good signal. As the frequency increases the attenuation by buildings, trees, leaves, etc becomes greater. With C-band all you have to do is put a few houses or trees between you and the tower to make your throughput go to almost nothing. There are times I turn 5G off on my phone because the throughput is to slow to open websites on my phone. Why? attenuation by objects in the line of sight to the tower. Many times 700MHz LTE has MUCH better throughput than 3.5GHz 5G.

What should 5G speeds be? Tell me your RSSI and I'll be able to estimate your download speed pretty well.

 

[y_p_w]

2.5 gbit/sec is 2500mbytes/sec. That is pretty dang fast. You sure you have the right units of measurement here?

No I didn't. But I'll take the L on that and not edit (not that I can) my original comment.

But yeah - mbit/sec.

 

[Jetronic]

No I didn't. But I'll take the L on that and not edit (not that I can) my original comment.

But yeah - mbit/sec.

point out that 2.5Gbit equals 2500 Mbit, and there's 8 bits in a byte. so it would be 300 ish Mbyte download speed...

 

[BobsArmory]

Back when the Iphone 13 came out my wife and I went to the dark side. She got an Iphone 13 and I got a 13 Pro Max. Our phones were constantly switching between 4G and 5G so much that I just turned off 5G altogether. It might just be our area but we found no real advantage in 5G.

 

[Marcozi]

Back when the Iphone 13 came out my wife and I went to the dark side. She got an Iphone 13 and I got a 13 Pro Max. Our phones were constantly switching between 4G and 5G so much that I just turned off 5G altogether. It might just be our area but we found no real advantage in 5G.

I concur. I think 5G doesn't lives up to its billing. I sure we all see ads touting 5G. 4G LTE is fine for me.

 

[tburke]

Depends on carrier, device, congestion, location, etc.

I have all three major carriers - Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile... my Verizon and T-Mobile lines are direct with the carriers, while AT&T is through an MVNO (US Mobile). Devices are an iPhone 16 Pro Max and a Google Pixel 8 Pro.

Where I live (the edge of north suburban Houston), Verizon is the most consistent with 5G speeds -- on average, with C-Band 5G, I can see anywhere between 400Mbps-1.2Gbps download... but most often, somewhere around 4-500Mbps. T-Mobile is the most inconsistent by far. With 5G "Ultra Capacity" (aka 2.5GHz), my speeds can be anywhere from 5Mbps to 2Gbps due to congestion... with average speeds being ~100-200Mbps.

 

[wwillson]

I think 5G doesn't lives up to its billing.

It depends on the frequency used. Remember 5G is just a new modulation technique that packs more symbols into the constellation. There are many towers that have 5G radios using 700MHz that will have virtually the same coverage as LTE with 700MHz. The issue comes in with the higher frequencies used in 5G that the controller wants you to stay connected to, because it offloads the lower frequency bands on the LTE radios. There are times that the controllers will keep your phone on the higher 5G frequencies too long, instead of releasing your phone and pushing it to the lower LTE frequencies.

 

[Hall]

I've never gotten faster than 600 or 800 Mb/s on "5GUW" (Verizon's terminology). That only happened 1-2 times too, though I don't test it very often either. When I did get those speeds, I was in downtown-ish area of Columbus OH. Closer to home, I only see "UW" in a few places and it's never meant faster speeds, definitely not how the carriers hype it up !

 

[Hermann]

Gave up on 5g on my phone, switched it back to LTE. Reason is that when I walk outdoors and listen to music the folks who have 5g wireless internet kept turning my music on and off while walking. 4g no issues.

Sitting at home listening to You Tube Music if I turn off WiFi on my phone and go to LTE, the audio quality is noticeably better. Especially music with lots of bells, chimes, cowbells and hi-hat cymbals.

 

[wwillson]

I've never gotten faster than 600 or 800 Mb/s on "5GUW" (Verizon's terminology).

I was standing about 10 feet from a mmWave cellular radio downtown Chicago and get 2.3Gb/s down. However if you put any object between your phone and the radio, the signal becomes practically useless. I don't see the point in outdoor mmWave.

 

[y_p_w]

Gave up on 5g on my phone, switched it back to LTE. Reason is that when I walk outdoors and listen to music the folks who have 5g wireless internet kept turning my music on and off while walking. 4g no issues.

I figured out how to switch to 4G LTE only. I think that's still unlimited data with our plan, on the idea that most people will choose 5G because of perceived performance benefits.

But at least at home I've tried testing it and it's actually worse than 5G. I think it might have more to do with congestion. When I was seeing 5G+, it was in an urban area where I'm thinking AT&T just saturated the area with towers.

 

[Hall]

Checked the results on my phone in the Speedtest app and 3-4 times I got in the 650 Mb/s range. That's the best I've ever seen. The app says I was in Indianapolis one time when it got one of those results and I haven't been there in a decade. Another time was somewhere in Alabama (which is valid), while the others were in Columbus OH like I recalled.

Sitting on my couch at home, my phone only picks up LTE.

 

[y_p_w]

I tested LTE and if it was in a place with a reasonably strong signal I was getting maybe 175 mbit/sec down and 30 up. Was slightly faster with 5G or 5G+. But previous to this I was worried about reaching a limit so I never really tested cellular speeds.

 

[factorytuned2012]

Have you tried resetting just the network settings on your device? Also try powering the device off eject the sim re-insert the sim and power back on.

 

[Rand]

I was standing about 10 feet from a mmWave cellular radio downtown Chicago and get 2.3Gb/s down. However if you put any object between your phone and the radio, the signal becomes practically useless. I don't see the point in outdoor mmWave.

Maybe in a stadium?
to the OP:
5g is very location dependent I can get from 1mbit to 700mbit.. signal strength and towers can be issues.
I've had 5 bars and webpages wont load.. and at my cabin with 1-2 bars it works fine.
but its usually the other way around.


They finally got all the tmobile towers here fully operational
compares ok in throughput to my gigabit home internet but the ping and latency is much worse of course.

Spectrum gig through wifi with a 1gbit connection to the WAP. (pixel 9 pro xl)

Same connection Wired with 2.5gbit ethernet

 

[wwillson]

Maybe in a stadium?

Yeah, possibly in a stadium. You'll see many super high density solutions including WiFi mixed with cellular. The cellular solutions are mostly higher frequencies, because they need huge throughput and huge scale. I was at a Rockies game last summer and my carrier had both WiFi and cellular radios, but the WiFi was so overwhelmed it was mostly useless. The cellular throughput was in the 100Mb/s range down and 10-15Mb/s up. I'm not sure what band the cellular was using. It doesn't surprise me that WiFi was useless and cellular continued to work well. Cellular scales so much better than WiFi when the system is highly utilized. There is lots of work being done to make WiFi scale better, but WiFi isn't likely to scale as well as cellular any time soon.

 

[andrew_j]

While really high speeds matter for speed test curiosity, there very few use cases on a smartphone where having more the 50 Mbps even 10 mostly matters…..