The kingdom is followed in second place by Canada, which averaged 90.4Mbps in the study and in third place by South Korea – the country widely credited with having the highest adoption of 5G to date.
The research, titled Download Speed Experience – 5G Users, was published by Opensignal and showed that users in the UK actually had the slowest average speeds at 32.6Mbps, “because the 4G experience greatly brings down the overall score”.
The study accounted for the average 3G and 4G speeds that 5G users see, as well as their average 5G download speed and time connected to each type of network.
The report explained: “We developed a measure to understand the overall mobile experience of 5G users, which takes into account their average 5G and 4G download speeds as well as the time spent connected to each technology. For the first time, we are now comparing 5G users’ overall experience across 12 of the world’s leading 5G markets.”
Together, this data revealed the overall download speed experience.
However, when accounting only for 5G technology, the scoreboard changed again.
Saudi Arabia held onto first place, but South Korea jumped to second place with average 5G download speeds of 312.7 Mbps — over five times faster than South Korea’s already fast 4G speeds. In this context, the UK also moved up the rankings with the US, Netherlands and Germany in the last three positions.
The report stated: “The modest 5G Download Speeds in the US are due to a combination of the limited amount of new mid-band 5G spectrum that is available and the popularity of low-band spectrum – T-Mobile’s 600MHz and AT&T’s 850MHz – which offer excellent availability and reach but lower average speeds than the 3.5GHz mid-band spectrum used as the main 5G band in every country outside of the US.
“However, Verizon’s mmWave-based 5G service offers very considerably faster average 5G Download Speeds of 494. 7 Mbps in our recent US report, which is faster than the average 5G download speeds Opensignal has seen on any operator, or in any country to date including Saudi Arabia.”
