5G First Look: Cardiff, UK Potential, possibilities, and real-world performance 5G First look: Cardiff, UK Potential, possibilities, and real-world performance The 5G race has officially begun in the UK. While the most advanced capabilities of 5G won’t be ready at initial launch, 5G will eventually deliver game-changing speeds, lower latency, and stronger reliability. 5G will also enable exciting new use cases for industries and consumers alike. Our first look 5G testing in the UK began in Birmingham, and we’ve extended our testing to Cardiff, where both EE and Vodafone had deployed 5G at the time of our testing. While neither O2 nor Three had launched 5G when we visited Cardiff (or Birmingham), both operators have stated plans to roll out 5G in Cardiff later in 2019. To learn what we found about 5G performance in Birmingham, check our 5G First Look report for Birmingham. Testing stats ‒ Testing dates: 26/9/2019 – 2/10/2019 ‒ Miles driven: 134 ‒ Indoor locations tested: 23 ‒ Total tests conducted: 10,070 ‒ Phones used for testing: OnePlus 7 Pro 5G (EE); Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G (Vodafone) 5G availability rates 5G speeds often grab headlines, but since end users won’t always access 5G (especially during the early stages of deployments), understanding how often we connected to 5G during download testing helps put 5G speeds in broader context. 14.0% 43.4% EE 5G availability rate in Cardiff: Vodafone 5G availability rate in Cardiff: 43.4% 14.0% The bottom line: While both EE and Vodafone are off to a good start in Cardiff, EE is showing an early advantage in 5G availability. EE’s 5G service in Cardiff was much more widespread than that of Vodafone, which follows the same trend we found in Birmingham. In Birmingham, EE’s download 5G availability percentage was 51.6% and Vodafone’s was 10.8%. That said, connecting to 5G at relatively low percentages in the early stages of deployment isn’t necessarily a surprise. Indeed, it can often take months or even a few years for a new network technology to fully mature and become ubiquitous across an entire city. A note on 5G availability: During the nascent stages of 5G rollouts, connecting to 5G at generally low percentages is relatively common. Operators often choose to launch 5G only in certain areas of a city and/or may target very specific audience segments, such as enterprise customers. That said, we do expect 5G service to become more prevalent as the networks make upgrades and mature over time. 5G speeds in Cardiff EE and Vodafone each delivered extremely impressive 5G median To put EE’s and Vodafone’s 5G speeds in real-world context, consider download speeds in Cardiff, and both operators’ speeds showed how long it would take an end user to download a 600MB video at the 5G median download speeds of EE and Vodafone compared to the huge improvements compared to their non-5G mode speeds. EE’s non-5G mode speeds of EE, O2 Three, and Vodafone. 5G median download speed of 163.1 Mbps was particularly strong. Time required to download 600MB video (seconds) 5G speeds compared to non-5G mode speeds 5G median download speeds EE 5G 30.2 seconds Vodafone 5G 43.0 seconds EE non-5G mode 82.4 seconds EE O2 Three Vodafone 163.1 Mbps N/A N/A 113.6 Mbps O2 non-5G mode 586.1 seconds Three non-5G mode 346.1 seconds Non-5G mode median download speeds Vodafone non-5G mode 130.2 seconds 5G in perspective: During our testing across the UK’s 16 largest metro areas in the first half of 2019, the single fastest median download speed EE O2 Three Vodafone we recorded was Vodafone’s 51.7 Mbps in Liverpool. While 51.7 Mbps is 58.8 Mbps 8.2 Mbps 13.9 Mbps 37.1 Mbps quite fast for 4G LTE technology, the 5G speeds we found in Cardiff blow that number away. Vodafone’s 5G median download speed in Cardiff was more than twice that fast, while EE’s 5G median download speed was well over three times faster. We observed a similar trend in Birmingham as well. The bottom line: EE registered the highest 5G availability percentage and EE’s 5G median download speed was 5G zooms past non-5G mode: nearly three the fastest 5G median download speed in Cardiff. Vodafone’s 5G speeds than EE’s non-5G mode median download speed, and Vodafone’s 5G speed times faster were also impressive and much faster than its non-5G mode speeds. was than its non-5G mode speed. While end users won’t always over three times faster The good news for end users is that when 5G isn’t available, both EE and access 5G in Cardiff, it’s clear that 5G is providing incredibly fast speeds compared to Vodafone delivered strong non-5G mode speeds. And as each operator’s those on non-5G mode. 5G network matures and undergoes upgrades, we expect to see higher 5G availability percentages and faster speeds going forward. 5G maximum download speeds Maximum download speeds can highlight the potential of an operator’s 5G network, and both EE and Vodafone delivered impressive 5G maximum download speeds in Cardiff. While each operator’s speed was relatively similar, Vodafone’s was a tick faster than that of EE. 5G maximum download speeds 0 500 0 500 339.4 Mbps 345.9 Mbps EE Vodafone Maximum speeds in perspective: While the maximum download speeds we found in Cardiff were quite fast in general, they trailed those recorded in Birmingham and were much slower than the fastest maximum download speeds we found from operators in the US (Verizon at 1.1 Gbps in Chicago) and South Korea (LG U+ at 902.7 Mbps in Seoul). We’re currently testing 5G in London and will be interested to see how speeds in Cardiff compare to those in the UK’s largest city. The impact of 5G While EE’s 5G availability rate was generally strong and higher than that of Vodafone in Cardiff, our results showed that even relatively low rates of 5G made a significant impact on the operators’ speeds and helped separate the 5G networks of EE and Vodafone from the non-5G mode networks of O2 and Three. Consider, for example, all four operators’ speed consistency results in Cardiff. The table below combines our test results across all network technologies (not just 5G) to show how often different speed thresholds were reached or surpassed. Operator 0-10 Mbps 10-20 Mbps 20-50 Mbps 50-100 Mbps 100+ Mbps EE 5.9% 5.9% 15.2% 17.6% 55.4% O2 56.7% 18.7% 20.6% 4.1% 0.0% Three 42.9% 19.4% 28.7% 9.1% 0.0% Vodafone 14.4% 12.7% 24.6% 21.5% 26.8% Given that EE and Vodafone were the only operators with 5G in Cardiff at the time of our testing, it’s not surprising that they delivered median download speeds toward the higher end of our thresholds (at least 50 Mbps) significantly more often than O2 or Three. The contrast is particularly evident when looking at speeds of 100 Mbps or faster, with EE delivering median download speeds in that range during 55.4.% of our tests and Vodafone doing so 26.8% of the time. 5G in Cardiff and Birmingham – at a glance EE and Vodafone were the only operators with a 5G presence in both Cardiff and Birmingham at the time of our testing, and while each network provided much faster speeds on 5G compared to non-5G mode, EE delivered faster 5G median download speeds than Vodafone in each city. EE also had higher 5G availability rates, but Vodafone’s 5G maximum download speed in Cardiff was slightly faster than that of EE. Check out the graphic below to see how the operators stacked up in the early stages of 5G in both cities. 5G availability (%) 51.6% 43.4% Birmingham 10.8% Cardiff 14.0% EE Vodafone 5G median and maximum download speed (Mbps) median maximum EE 185.7 450.9 Birmingham Vodafone 112.2 366.9 EE 163.1 339.4 Cardiff Vodafone 113.6 345.9 Conclusion The 5G median download speeds we found in Cardiff were encouraging A note about our testing: In the early phases of deployments when 5G typically isn’t and showed significant progress for 5G compared to 4G LTE. Perhaps more rolled out by all operators across an entire city, our scientific testing methodology is the only way to truly characterise the end-user’s real-world 5G experience. While importantly, the strong 5G maximum download speeds indicate a solid crowdsourced 5G studies often base conclusions on small and/or biased samples foundation for the future of each operator’s 5G experience in Cardiff. As the limited to specific locations where users choose to submit results with a variety operators launch 5G in other markets across the UK, we’ll continue testing of different devices, our randomised spatial sampling techniques ensure the to show you how 5G performs under real-world conditions. We’ll soon consumer’s real-world 5G experience is accurately captured at different times of the day and night. Testing is conducted while walking and driving, and all tests are release 5G First Look results from our testing in London. performed using smartphones purchased off the shelf from operator stores. For more information, visit 410920712-1019-MT.