5G謊言：未來的網絡仍然緩慢,市場推廣快過5G科技

 5G謊言：未來的網絡仍然緩慢

The 5G lie: The network of the future is still slow

We speed tested 5G phones against 4G ones. America’s new nationwide 5G networks weren’t much faster — and in some places they were slower.

我們對5G和4G手機進行速度測試,美國新建立的全國性5G網絡的運行速度並沒有快了- 而在某些地方,5G手機的速度較慢。

目前,5G只不過是4G般快,5G的市場推廣快過5G科技。

September 8, 2020

Unless you’ve been living under a rock — which in 2020 actually sounds soothing — you’ve probably heard there’s a new cellphone technology called 5G. Any iPhone or Galaxy owner knows the law of Gs: Every additional G makes downloads faster. 3G sent pictures. 4G streamed video.

Apple is planning to hold a launch event on Sept. 15, where it could unveil its first 5G-enabled iPhones. Samsung’s entire flagship lineup is now 5G-equipped. So these 2020 models are going to really fly, right?

Well, hold on just a minute. 5G may hold promise for the years ahead — but across most of America in 2020, a 5G phone does diddly squat. Testing 5G phones, I’ve been clocking download speeds that are roughly the same as on 4G LTE ones. And in some places, like inside my house and along the California highway, my 5G phones actually have been slower.

Yes, slower.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been carrying six phones: a year-old 4G LTE one and a new 5G one from each of the three major U.S. carriers: AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. Then wherever I went around the San Francisco Bay area, I ran simultaneous download tests on them using an app called Ookla Speedtest. I’ve done this more than 4,000 times.

AT&T and T-Mobile both market their 5G networks as “nationwide,” though they carefully dance around speed claims. AT&T says 5G means “improved speed” and T-Mobile says “faster speed,” without many specifics. Verizon does make extreme-speed claims about its 5G network — it’s “25x faster than today’s 4G” — but it is, as of this summer, available in less than 1 percent of the country.

But let’s be clear: The majority of Americans think 5G means “a faster and more reliable connection," according to a survey by the consulting firm Sykes.

My median download speed on AT&T was 32 Mbps with the 5G phone and 34 Mbps on the 4G one. On T-Mobile, I got 15 Mbps on the 5G phone and 13 Mbps on the 4G one. Verizon’s limited 5G network wasn’t available in my test area.

Perhaps California is a particularly difficult territory for these initial national 5G networks? Every neighborhood, smartphone model and even way you hold the phone can shape download performance — but I’m not the only one underwhelmed by nationwide 5G performance right now. I swapped results with firms that run network speed tests all over the country with volunteers and by roaming the streets.

RootMetrics, a network-analysis firm owned by IHS Markit, said that in the first half of the year, median AT&T 5G speeds were 46 Mbps, only slightly faster than the 4G LTE speed of 43 Mbps. At T-Mobile, speeds increased more as a percentage, but its median 5G speed of 25 Mbps still can’t even compete with its rivals’ 4G LTE speeds.

Another firm, Opensignal, said the average 5G phone download speed in the United States between May and August was 76 percent faster than a 4G phone download. But the overall download speed experience of Americans with 5G phones was just 33 Mbps, the second-slowest in the world.

When I asked executives at the networks about speed, they acknowledged a truth their advertisements carefully omit. “Our 5G experience initially is as good or better than our 4G LTE experience,” said Chris Sambar, AT&T’s executive vice president for technology operations. Let that sink in: At least for now, 5G is … only as good as 4G.

more:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/09/08/5g-speed/