Robert Triggs / Android Authority
Depending on where you live, you’ve likely had 5G in your pocket for at least a couple of years — or possibly close to half a decade. In any case, the wireless tech has certainly been around long enough to have had time to accomplish the numerous lofty promises that CEOs piped up to upsell us, which included everything from rejuvenating retail to traffic lights pushing updates to your car.
While some of those promises might have come to pass, quite a lot of them have obviously not. I don’t know about you, but my city’s traffic lights aren’t any more in sync than they were a decade ago. But let’s answer the big question: Now that we’re several years into 5G’s global rollout, has it come close to living up to the hype?
Has 5G lived up to the hype? 365 votes Yes 9 % No 84 % I'm not sure 7 %
Fast data for some but not for everyone
David Imel / Android Authority
For you and me, 5G promised three major improvements: gigabit speeds boasting 10x or greater enhancements over 4G, latency as low as 1ms, and more reliable coverage.
Let’s start with that first point, which was always overly reliant on the promise of expensive, short-range mmWave spectrum. This technology has mostly seen deployment in dense urban hotspots — stadiums, airports, and downtowns — in a few countries like China and the US, but the rest of the world has largely ignored it due to its cost and poor signal range. Even in the US, only Verizon remains highly committed to the technology, with AT&T and T-Mobile preferring localized deployments. Instead, much of the world’s 5G network coverage is based on repurposed 4G spectrum and select 6-GHz bands.
So how does the data compare to the hype?
Ookla’s US speed test report between July and December 2024 shows a huge discrepancy in data rates across the country. In many states, the median download speed seen by consumers remains around the 50Mbps data range, and even in the best case, consumers typically experience sub-200Mbps speeds. That’s serviceable for light work on the go, but falls well shy of the gigabit potential we were promised (although consumer speeds were never going to sustain that level for any length of time). Equally, latency remains comparatively high for our gadgets, averaging 63ms nationwide, fine for browsing but too high for real-time applications like cloud gaming or AR/VR.
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