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There are a variety of reasons your 5G may be slow, including an obstructed cellular signal, your phone's lack of compatibility with the 5G network's bands, network congestion, or the general lack of speed on the particular 5G network you've connected to (not all 5G networks are created equal).
In this article, we'll go into detail about each of these potential reasons, and tell you how to go about speeding up your 5G connection.
If your 5G seems slower than 4G, it can be frustrating. Here are some reasons why this might be happening:
In many cases, the potential of 5G is still being rolled out, and until the network matures, there might be areas where 4G actually provides a more reliable and faster connection.
If you're stuck with slow 5G for whatever reason, the good news is that you might be able to improve your 5G speeds through a few straightforward steps. Here's what you might consider:
Switching back to 4G can be a practical temporary workaround if:
To switch to 4G, you can typically go into your phone’s network settings and select "LTE" or "4G" as your preferred network type. This can provide more stability if 5G coverage is incomplete or congested in your area.
How Does 5G Work?
Each generation of cellular internet has expanded upon the last. The original iteration was only capable of analog voice, while the 2G of the 90s was delivered digitally. Mobile data as we know it began with 3G in the 2000s, and that was expanded into mobile broadband with 4G during the smartphone era.
5G is the next step, offering ultra-low latency and exponentially higher speeds than its predecessors. Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T are currently building up their 5G infrastructure, building the necessary hardware to make 5G the primary method of interfacing with cellular networks. Each company is at a different step of the process, but all of them are racing to control the 5G market in the 2020s.
As we mentioned, while 5G could theoretically hit speeds 600 times faster than 4G LTE, in many network tests, it currently runs slower. In 2020, when the technology was only just emerging, it was found that AT&T 5G was running considerably slower than its 4G network across the nation.
At the time, AT&T was only allotting a small percentage of their 850MHz band for 5G connection, meaning that 5G was running on a very narrow channel. While AT&T got off to a good start in coverage, very little of its network was meaningfully faster than 4G LTE.
It is important to note that this was the intended outcome and that AT&T’s plan was always to start with a wide coverage area and build up the quality of their 5G networks from there. This was in stark contrast to Verizon’s plan, which was to provide top-of-the-line high-speed internet at the expense of rolling out their network as fast as their competitors.
One of the reasons 4G LTE hits such consistent speeds is that it benefits from carrier aggregation. Carrier aggregation is when multiple frequency bands are combined with increasing bandwidth and speed. A phone cannot yet support this on a 5G network, and instead of utilizing multiple 4G channels, your phone is sticking to a single, narrow 5G channel.
Once 5G is integrated into the structural framework of the country’s cellular networks, it will naturally get faster. The expansion of 5G will mean that 4G LTE will eventually be phased out, and resources will be primarily allocated to 5G. Another important fact is that 5G networks are still sparse, and the increase in cell towers that support 5G will lead to faster speeds.
As of this writing, T-Mobile has better speed, and coverage in its 5G network than either Verizon or AT&T. T-Mobile opted to use sub 6GHz to reach the widest possible array of customers. It reaches over 300 million people with mid-band infrastructure that it acquired through its merger with Sprint.
This speed boost puts it ahead of the competition despite the less ambitious infrastructure it is currently building on. Verizon is focusing on mmWave 5G, which is taking much longer to roll out around the country. It could potentially yield significantly faster speeds than T-Mobile, but as of 2022, it is not advanced enough to compete yet.
Your phone may seem slower on 5G if the network is congested with other users. Additionally, the 5G network you're on may be of the low-band variety, whose speed improvements over 4G are relatively slight.
To make your 5G faster, you can also try restarting your phone, toggling airplane mode, or disabling battery-saving features that might throttle performance. Keeping your phone’s software updated and avoiding network congestion during peak hours can also improve speed
Your 5G signal may be weak due to several factors, including distance from the nearest 5G tower, physical obstructions like buildings or trees, or being in a low-frequency 5G band, which offers broader coverage but slower speeds and weaker signals.
What is 5G? Benefits of 5G Network Technology Explained | About Verizon
What is 5G | Everything You Need to Know About 5G | 5G FAQ | Qualcomm
What You Need to Know About 5G in 2020 | The New York Times
AT&T's current 5G is slower than 4G in nearly every city tested by PCMag | Ars Technica
5G Spectrum Guide - Everything You Need to Know | GSMA
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