London is bottom in Europe for 5G, while Europe lags the rest of the world

Plus: Fandroid alert – Android devices sometimes say '5G' when connecting to 4G

London is bottom of the table when it comes to 5G mobile service, according to a report gauging major European cities on the overall quality of user experience. And, Europe itself lags behind other regions in 5G SA deployment.

The report on quality of experience comes from MedUX, a firm specializing in network testing and monitoring. It conducted research during Q4 2024 across 15 major European cities and found that the quality of service received by users varies significantly.

London comes last for overall experience, with MedUX claiming that its measurements reveal "subpar 5G availability, slow speeds, and a clear need for enhanced reliability across multiple services."

At the other end of the scale, Stockholm and Porto in Portugal are ranked highest, with the cellular service in Sweden's capital "excelling in video streaming and 5G upload speeds, achieving a typical (median) speed above 116 Mbps."

Chart from the MedUX report

The tests looked at a number of factors including service availability, download and upload speeds, latency and streaming performance. The results collected are individually and collectively weighted, before being aggregated into an overall score.

Beyond the aggregate scores, MedUX says it found the most reliable service in Lisbon, Portugal, while Porto, together with Copenhagen, set the benchmark for availability.

The report notes "wide disparities" in 5G performance across Europe, with Stockholm, Oslo, Lisbon, Copenhagen, and Porto offering peak speeds exceeding 800 Mbps in the fastest 10 percent of sessions, while other cities fall "within or below" the 700 Mbps range.

"This report underscores the importance of a holistic approach to 5G quality. While coverage and speed remain key factors, high-quality 5G connectivity and consistent performance across all services and applications are crucial for delivering a truly superior user experience," said MedUX EMEA SVP Rafael González.

One notable finding from the firm is that Android devices often misrepresent 5G connectivity. It claims that up to 20 percent of the time, a device may indicate a 5G connection while still operating on pure LTE (4G) infrastructure. Not surprisingly, this can lead to user disillusionment over 5G.

Improvements in performance are still expected to come with the widespread introduction of 5G Standalone (SA). At the moment, this remains "largely unavailable" across Europe, with MedUX stating that only a handful of operators currently offer residential 5G SA plans, including Orange (Spain), Vodafone (UK), and Vodafone (Germany).

5G SA brings with it many of the benefits that were originally touted when 5G was being introduced, including ultra-low latency, network slicing, and improved reliability.

European tardiness in 5G SA is picked up by a different report from Ookla, the network intelligence company behind the Downdetector and Speedtest tools. It says that Europe "severely lags" behind other major global regions in both the rollout of 5G SA technology and performance.

In Q4 2024, China, India and the US led the world in 5G SA availability, it claims, with China at 80 percent and Europe on just 2 percent.

Europe also lagged behind in other areas, with local consumers typically experiencing 5G SA download speeds of 221.17 Mbps, while the figures for the Americas were 384.42 Mbps and 237.04 Mbps for Asia-Pacific.

Within Europe, the best outcomes are seen in countries that have adopted specific policies to encourage 5G SA deployment, with Germany, the UK and Spain praised for having targeted fiscal stimuli or coverage obligations.

In fact, Ookla singles out EE, the mobile arm of Britain's former telco monopoly BT, as setting the pace. It has adopted "a highly diversified spectrum strategy in the UK, allocating as much as five or six spectrum carriers to its 5G SA deployments across large parts of major cities," the report states, explaining that "by aggregating multiple carriers across low- and mid-band spectrum, EE has executed one of the most comprehensive 5G SA deployments in Europe."

But Ookla concludes that Europe is "at an important crossroads in its 5G journey," and despite setting ambitious infrastructure targets, the region as a whole "continues to lag behind its developed peers in key measures of network reach and performance."

It notes that there are a number of challenges operators face in deploying 5G SA, but says these can be resolved with intervention from regulators and governments. This includes measures such as switching off 2G and 3G networks to avoid duplication of resources, addressing planning constraints, and ensuring sufficient financial resources are available to provide ubiquitous 5G coverage. ®