{"id":41874,"date":"2020-11-24T06:55:02","date_gmt":"2020-11-24T14:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/gsma_resources\/5g-advances-across-the-u-k-but-access-varies-widely-by-country\/"},"modified":"2020-11-24T06:55:02","modified_gmt":"2020-11-24T14:55:02","slug":"5g-advances-across-the-u-k-but-access-varies-widely-by-country","status":"publish","type":"gsma_theme_resources","link":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/get-involved\/gsma-membership\/cn\/gsma_resources\/5g-advances-across-the-u-k-but-access-varies-widely-by-country\/","title":{"rendered":"5G Advances Across the U.K., but Access Varies Widely by Country"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The United Kingdom has seen considerable advances in 5G during\u00a0the past year<\/a>, but access to this emerging technology continues to be uneven across countries of the U.K. Looking at Q3 2020, data from\u00a0Speedtest Intelligence<\/a>\u00ae and\u00a0Ookla Cell Analytics<\/a>\u2122 reveals how 5G affected overall mobile speeds, which country had the fastest 5G and where access was lacking. We also shed light on which operator had the fastest 5G in the U.K. as a whole and in London, specifically.<\/p>\n

5G is 518% faster than 4G in the U.K.<\/h2>\n

5G speeds in the U.K. far exceeded those on 4G during Q3 2020 with the mean download speed over 5G coming in 517.8% faster than median download speed over 4G. The U.K\u2019s mean upload speed over 5G was 121.5% faster than that over 4G.<\/p>\n

Mean Mobile Speeds in the United Kingdom<\/h5>\n
Speedtest Intelligence\u00ae<\/sup>\u00a0| Q3 2020<\/h6>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/th>\n5G Download (Mbps)<\/th>\n5G Upload (Mbps)<\/th>\n4G Download (Mbps)<\/th>\n4G Upload (Mbps)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
United Kingdom<\/td>\n186.97<\/td>\n21.38<\/td>\n30.26<\/td>\n9.65<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Scotland had the fastest 5G download speed<\/h2>\n

Scotland brought up the national average for 5G speeds in the U.K. during Q3 2020 with a 6.1% faster mean download speed than we saw in the U.K. as a whole. England was the second fastest country in the U.K. for mean download speed over 5G and Wales was third. While 5G download speeds were promising in Northern Ireland, the volume of data did not meet our rigorous sampling guidelines. We\u2019ll be interested to see how speeds there develop as more users access the networks.<\/p>\n

Mean Mobile Speeds in the United Kingdom<\/h5>\n
Speedtest Intelligence\u00ae<\/sup>\u00a0| Q3 2020<\/h6>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/th>\n5G Download (Mbps)<\/th>\n5G Upload (Mbps)<\/th>\n4G Download (Mbps)<\/th>\n4G Upload (Mbps)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
England<\/td>\n184.48<\/td>\n21.49<\/td>\n31.05<\/td>\n9.69<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n
Scotland<\/td>\n198.39<\/td>\n22.05<\/td>\n28.60<\/td>\n9.87<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n
Wales<\/td>\n171.12<\/td>\n21.49<\/td>\n26.26<\/td>\n9.02<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Three was the fastest operator for 5G in the U.K.<\/h2>\n

As we\u2019ve previously reported, 3 was the\u00a0fastest mobile operator over 5G in the U.K during Q3 2020<\/a>\u00a0with a median download speed of 201.12 Mbps. EE had the highest percentage of 5G Time Spent (when subscribers\u2019 5G-capable devices are connected to 5G).<\/p>\n

How operators in the U.K. are using spectrum for 4G<\/h3>\n

The distribution of low, mid and high spectrum bands is evenly spread across all mobile operators in the U.K. All four operators hold licenses in the 800 MHz frequency band, while Vodafone and O2 hold additional 900 MHz licenses \u2014 some of which are still used to support the legacy 2G and 3G services. Three and Vodafone hold 20 MHz each of the 1500 MHz supplemental downlink band 32, and all four operators hold 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz licenses. It\u2019s worth noting that EE holds a massive 40 MHz contiguous slice in the 1800 MHz band and 20 MHz in the 2100 MHz band.<\/p>\n

O2 holds an additional 40 MHz contiguous spectrum block in the 2300 MHz (TDD) band. In the 2600 MHz capacity band, O2 holds a single 20 MHz block, Vodafone holds two 20 MHz blocks, while EE operates on a whopping 50 MHz slice of spectrum.<\/p>\n

Given the spectrum distribution in the mid- and high-capacity bands, and the increased proliferation of devices with modern chipsets capable of aggregating multiple LTE component carriers, it\u2019s fairly easy to see why EE has been able to consistently deliver the fastest LTE speeds in recent years.<\/p>\n

5G-specific spectrum allocation in the U.K.<\/h3>\n