5G is getting faster, but the U.S. is lagging behind
5G is catching on quickly.
According to a new report by Speedtest, the next-gen mobile network has seen major adoption this year. 5G has also gotten a lot faster, though speeds vary tremendously depending on where you live.
Based on more than 60.5 million Speedtest results from the third quarter of 2020, the report shows that 5G adoption is rapidly spreading. A total of 99 countries worldwide had 5G, with coverage getting pretty good in the U.S., most of Europe, the Arabian Peninsula, and Eastern Asia.
A total of 14,643 cities worldwide had 5G at the end of Q3 2020, a 1,671 percent increase over the same period last year. Here, the U.S. fared well, with 7,583 cities with 5G, and a big increase in number of 5G deployments. Other countries in the top 10 leaderboard in these categories include Germany, Thailand, Austria, and the Netherlands.
When it comes to speed, however, the U.S. is lagging. Speedtest's report claims that the worldwide median download speed over 5G was 954 percent faster than over 4G during the third quarter of 2020. The country with the fastest media 5G download speed was Norway, with 549.02 Mbps, followed by the United Arab Emirates and South Africa. In the U.S., however, median download speed over 5G was just 64.11 Mbps.
This is mainly due to most U.S. carriers offering slower, low-/mid-band 5G in most locations. This has helped rapid deployment, but for true 5G speeds, the U.S. will have to wait for a broader deployment of faster, mmWave 5G. Some carriers, such as T-Mobile, have announced significant improvements in mmWave coverage over the next year, which should bring faster 5G to many U.S. customers.
Speedtest's owner Ookla is owned by Mashable's parent company, J2 Global.
Related Video: What is 5G?
Topics 5G
Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has worked since 2007. He's got more battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts than you. He writes about the next groundbreaking thing. Typically, this is a phone, a coin, or a car. His ultimate goal is to know something about everything.
