All of the US carriers have now launched some form of 5G cellular network. But what exactly is 5G, and how fast is it compared with 4G? Here are the facts we know so far.
“Nationwide 5G” is here, but for many people, it isn’t making much of a difference. Both AT&T and Verizon are running forms of 5G that light up a ‘5G’ icon on your brand-new smartphone but feel and work exactly like 4G.
That may lead people to wonder what the big deal is with 5G. Is what we’re seeing right now even 5G at all? The answer is yes—technically. It turns out that 5G technology and a “5G experience” are very different things, and right now in the US we’re getting the former without the latter.
Things will start to turn, though. T-Mobile’s “ultra capacity” 5G won our Fastest Mobile Networks 2021 tests by showing speeds much faster than 4G, and starting in late 2021, the upcoming C-band networks may change the game for AT&T and Verizon.