Why is U.S. 5G so slow?

So, is it worth upgrading to 5G? Absolutely! Provided you live in an area that currently supports 5G connections , that is. For everyone else, you’ll have to wait and experience the difference for yourself.

In theory, 5G is likely to reach speeds that are 20 times faster than 4G LTE 1. 4G LTE has a peak speed of 1GB per second; 5G could theoretically achieve speeds of 20GB per second. These are of course what you might call ‘peak speeds’, we’ll just have to see when 5G is rolled out what the real-world performance is like.

So, why are some 5G connections so slow? The first, and most impactful, reason is that the far-reaching 5G signals that have powered the vast majority of carrier rollouts in the US – especially from AT&T and, to a lesser extent, T-Mobile – have used low-band carrier frequencies.