RootMetrics gives ‘5G Gold’ to Team GB

The IHS Markit owned research company reported that UK 5G network connections are consistently above 100 Mbit/s in the 16 major cities it tested, while the networks in the US are “lagging way behind”, rarely getting close to 100 Mbit/s across 125 cities.

Report author David Anderson said: “5G in the UK is already fast, and the good news is that 5G has gotten even faster and more widespread since the second half of 2020.”

Within the report, RootMetrics applied its ‘Everyday 5G’ measure which combines network speed and performance from both 5G-only and “5G mixed mode” (“the user experience of “switching between 5G and 4G LTE during the same data activity”). The researchers claim this offers the most accurate picture of the daily “5G experience when connected to 5G, at least a portion of the time” as operators continue to expand 5G coverage.

Measuring UK performance compared to the US, the report found that “not one UK operator delivered an ‘Everyday 5G’ median download speed below 50 Mbit/s in the first half of 2021 compared to all three major carriers clocking speeds below 50 Mbit/s in nearly half of the 125 cities tested in America”.