Verizon 5G is slower than its LTE network: Report

The US telecom service provider Verizon has built the country’s fastest 4G LTE network, and now its 5G millimeter-wave and ultra-wideband (UWB) network construction have begun to take shape. However, according to the actual measurement of PCMag, the 5G network speed using Verizon is slower than 4G, which slows down the performance of the mobile phone.

At present, Verizon’s 4G LTE network is faster than the 5G networks of T-Mobile and AT&T. However, the company’s UWB 5G signal coverage is very small, and mobile phones often do not display 5G icons when used in cities.

In October this year, Verizon introduced the nationwide ” Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) ” technology, which can use 4G frequency bands to provide 5G signals. The mobile phone will automatically select 5G first, so the mobile phone will prompt for a 5G icon. However, according to PCMag using iPhone 12 Pro in New York, the 5G network speed using DSS technology is obviously slower than the 4G signal, and it is rarely faster than the 4G network speed. This result is similar to the test result of the Pixel 5 mobile phone in Chicago in October this year.

“For most users, the performance of using our 5G network is similar to that of 4G. DSS is a new technology and we are constantly debugging it. We expect that after 2021, the 5G network will have a significant performance improvement.” Verizon’s one A spokesperson said.

The real 5G signal should be exclusive to a frequency band, not shared with 4G signals. This is the case with Verizon’s UWB 5G signal, which has covered more than 60 cities in the United States. However, due to the higher frequency of 5G signals and weak penetration capability, a very high-density base station arrangement is required to ensure coverage. From the results, it is clear that the United States currently does not have this condition.

The frequency of the 5G signal provided by DSS technology is the same as that of 4G. The only difference is that the signal encoding method is different, so the network speed will not increase when using DSS 5G. According to current test results, DSS 5G is slower than 4G.

Testers used the iPhone 12 Pro to conduct tests at 8 locations in New York City, USA, to compare the speed of 4G and 5G signals. In 7 locations, 5G speed is slower than 4G network speed. Only in one location, due to UWB 5G base station, the speed surpasses 4G. Not only that, the delay of the DSS 5G signal is a bit slower than that of the 4G network.

Not only Verizon, the test results of foreign media in 26 other cities show that AT&T’s 5G network is also slower than 4G.

The iPhone users use the networks of Verizon and AT&T, it is recommended to manually turn off the 5G network on the phone and switch to “LTE” or 4G to improve the network speed performance in most cases, but This method is not applicable to T-Mobile because it uses a different 5G network model. Of course, if your mobile phone displays a 5G UW icon, it means that a real high-frequency 5G network is provided at this time, and you can safely turn on the 5G function.

Unfortunately, most Android phones using Verizon do not provide the option to turn off 5G, and users need to try it themselves.

(Source)