A new study from Northeastern University has found that while 5G has been deployed globally in urban regions, user experiences are not necessarily improved from 4G speeds.
In the study, which included participation from IMDEA Networks, TU Berlin, University of Porto, University of Oslo, Politecnico di Torino, Technical University of Denmark and Hewlett Packard Labs, was conducted over a year in several cities across Europe and North America.
“We collected controlled and crowdsourced data in eight cities (Berlin, Turin, Oslo, Porto, Madrid, Vancouver, Boston and the Bay Area, California) and found a striking geographic and operator-level variation: Some networks offer excellent 5G uplink performance, while others show little or no improvement compared to [4G] LTE,” said Imran Khan, a predoctoral researcher at Northeastern University and author of the study.
The study combined large-scale crowdsourced measurement with a controlled millimeter-wave (mmWave) campaign. It found that 5G service is uneven. In some urban locations, 5G did not offer clear latency benefits over 4G LT and depended upon features like:
- The spectrum band
- Deployment density
- Use of cloud and edge infrastructure
“5G deployment in major cities has stabilized, but this stability has not yet translated into consistent latency advantages over 4G/LTE; the reality is more varied than marketing suggests,” said Claudio Fiandrino, research assistant professor at IMDEA Networks.
6G risks
Given 5G has been deployed but has yet to provide the benefits promised, the study warned about telecoms rushing to implement and deploy 6G technologies.
“There is a risk of wasted investment and unmet public expectations; misallocation of resources toward promoted features instead of addressing operational issues (coverage gaps, backhaul/edge location, spectrum fragmentation); and potential policy and market decisions based on optimistic promises rather than tangible reality,” Fiandrino said. “This could also undermine trust if future generations (6G) are promoted prematurely.”
Instead, networking vendors and telecoms should focus on user experiences and resolving operational and implementation issues before moving to the next generation. Policies and 6G investments should be guided by reproducible results, the study said.
“In terms of coverage and deployment stability, 5G seems mature in major cities, but full maturity has not yet been reached regarding reliability, clear performance advantages, and user experience compared to 4G, especially in latency,” Fiandrino said. “Therefore, maturity is conditional: deployed, yes; consistently superior performance, not yet.”
