How do you feel about 5G? New report shows positive but dropping sentiment [Poll]

A new report from Ookla today looks at 5G performance in 16 countries around the world. But instead of stopping there, it’s gathered customer feedback on how users feel about the latest generation cellular connectivity. Read on for all the details and share your experience in our 5G poll.

Published on its blog today, Ookla shared three key insights from its latest research: 5G performance varies considerably, “median 5G performance is declining in many early launch 5G markets,” and net promoter scores for 5G are significantly higher than 4G LTE in the majority of markets, but those are dropping.

First, Ookla shows the wide range of 5G speeds across 16 different countries. “While headline 5G speeds impress, Speedtest Intelligence data lays bare the ups and downs of 5G performance for consumers, even in early launch, advanced 5G markets.”

Along with the median 5G download speed, the chart shows the bottom and top 10% speeds too.

Digging further, many countries saw a decrease in 5G speed over the last year. The US, Italy, and Qatar were the only three countries on the list to actually increase 5G download performance.

Ookla says in the US that was thanks to T-Mobile and Verizon. However, the US median 5G performance still lags behind many of the countries reviewed.

Ookla says “As 5G adoption scales, it places more strain on the new networks. The challenge for many of these markets is that network performance is likely to degrade further unless network densification picks up.”

How do people feel about 5G?

When it comes to how users rate their 5G experience, it’s actually more positive than you might expect. Ookla studied the increase in net promoter scores between 5G and 4G LTE and in each market 5G ratings were notably higher, except for South Korea.

“NPS is a key performance indicator of customer experience, categorizing users into Detractors (score 0-6), Passives (score 7-8), and Promoters (score 9-10), with the NPS representing the percentage of Promoters minus the percent of Detractors, displayed in the range from -100 to 100.”

The raw 5G NPS was also positive for all but four countries on the list. That means there were more promoters than detractors when rating their 5G experience in the majority of countries.

But there were a number of countries like the US, France, Italy, and Saudi Arabia that weren’t far off from having as many detractors as promoters.

An important finding from Ookla is that NPS regarding 5G is starting to drop, “coinciding with lower median 5G performance in many of the markets we analyzed.”

Finally, Ookla notes that as 5G continues to expand, it will make its way to more suburban and rural users which will bring its own challenges for providers.

How do you feel about 5G?

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