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

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. Your experience with a 5G phone in 2020 is likely to be all over the map. I got searing fast 750 Mbps downloads from AT&T in one corner of downtown. But in the same spot, my 4G phone got an also extremely fast 330 Mbps. Moreover, because of the pandemic, those aren’t places I go very often. As I write this from my home office in the middle of San Francisco, I’m getting 11 Mbps downloads on my AT&T 5G phone. On T-Mobile, I get a laughable 8 Mbps on 5G, which is barely enough to stream HD Netflix.

For now at least, the three big US carriers are not charging extra fees to access 5G. But they do require you to buy a new smartphone to use the new network. And for most people, today’s 5G just isn’t a good reason to upgrade. It’s like buying a sports car and then realizing it can’t go over 65 mph very often. You’re stuck in the slow lane while faster ones are built.