The Changing US 5G Experience

5G is evolving fast in the US. In just a few months, the 5G experience we saw has changed dramatically on each carrier. And, while progress has boosted many 5G measures, in other 5G categories we see big drops. Looking at 5G over the summer, we saw that average 5G Download Speed using Verizon ranged from 508.3 Mbps to 338 Mbps. But now in these five cities the highest average speed we see using Verizon is 68.0 Mbps. Similarly, T-Mobile users saw a real-world average 5G Download speed of 49.2 Mbps then, here we see speeds range of 83.8 Mbps, 74.9 Mbps, 65.8 Mbps, 59.8 Mbps in four of the cities. But at the same time, we see jumps on 5G Availability on both T-Mobile and Verizon. Now, we see the 5G Download Speed across the three carriers is neck and neck in five major cities. The 5G market is now very competitive. In three cities, there is no clear leader in 5G Download Speed because the average 5G speeds are close enough that our confidence intervals overlap. These results are in marked contrast to our previous results. Why has the experience changed so much in such a short space of time?