Report: Real World 5G Signal Availability Is Pathetic At AT&T (12%) And Verizon (7.7%)
Fifth-generation wireless (5G) was supposed to change the world. According to wireless carriers and gear makers, not only was it supposed to bring about the fourth industrial revolution," it was supposed to usher forth amazing new smart cities and help withcancer treatment.Wireless giants routinely portrayed a world full of 5G powered robots givingtattoosor engaging inremote bananna surgery(?).
In the real world, 5G landed with a dud. While it does offer faster and lower latency connections, it was always more of a modest evolution than a revolution. And U.S. telecom being what it is (highly consolidated, barely competitive, poorly and inconsistently regulated), most U.S. 5G service wound up beingslowerand significantlymore expensivethan most other developed nations.
A new report on U.S. wireless network performance by OpenSignal once again drives the inferiority of U.S. 5G home. The research firm created a metric dubbed the 5G availability score" - or the percentage of time customers actually have a 5G network connection in the places they most commonly frequent."The results are... particularly bad for two of the U.S.' biggest wireless providers:
On 5G availability," T-Mobile resembles an Usain Bolt alongside the decrepit fun runners of AT&T and Verizon, scoring 67.9%. AT&T limps over the line below 12%, while Verizon collapses on it at 7.7%."
Analysts note that the problem is particularly bad for U.S. 5G signal strength indoors. And it's particularly bad indoors for Verizon and AT&T due to their heavy reliance on C-band spectrum (3.7 GHz), which lacks the range, speed, and wall penetration of other spectrum assets. It's something that can be fixed in time, but not without both companies (read: consumers) spending significantly more money.
Meanwhile, something that Wall Street analysts and wireless research firms couldn't care any less about is consumer costs. The consolidation of the Sprint and T-Mobile merger may have given T-Mobile a treasure trove of spectrum assets, but other studies have found the elimination of a fourth competitor ultimately caused the U.S. wireless industry to immediately stop competing on price.
And while T-Mobile may be faring better on 5G availability, other signs of deterioration thanks to consolidation have been evident. This is a company that has been hacked eight times in the last five years. And despite building a reputation for being different from industry giants AT&T and Verizon, they've increasingly been caught nickel and diming their userbase at an accelerating rate.
It's not all gloom: 4G networks do generally perform well. And 5G in many areas has resulted in a big boom in fixed 5G home broadband access, which, while not as reliable as fiber, is a big improvement for those stuck on traditional broadband. But again, the quality and pricing of these connections are heavily dependent on healthy market competition, which the U.S. now has less of after the Sprint T-Mobile union.
Again, this conversation about competition and the perils of consolidation is simply not something most analysts, wireless research firms, and public policy officials care about in the slightest. In large part because the act of dismantling regulatory oversight and competition through mindless consolidation results in the only benefit that matters to the industry: stock valuations.
Thanks to consolidation, U.S. consumers not only pay more for mobile data than most developed nations, but the quality of the long-hyped 5G connections is inferior to many overseas deployments. We ultimately lost the once-heralded race to 5G" thanks to mindless deregulation and consolidation, resulting in a clumsy waddle toward mediocrity the industry doesn't much like to talk about.