After a decade of testing 3G and 4G wireless networks, this year we drove to 26 US cities amidst a pandemic to determine whether 5G is ready for prime time. Find out which carrier’s network is fastest where you live, and whether its time to upgrade.
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Hi I’m Sascha Segan from PCMag.com Here in the Bronx, Halfway through our New York City Fastest Mobile Networks testing for 2020. I’m here to show you how
we test 4G and 5G networks. We’ve hired people in 25 major US cities To drive around their
cities or nearby cities, Shepherding phones testing
the 4G and 5G networks. We stop in at least 12 places per city And we also collect data
as we’re on the roads. I’ve got here three 4G phones, One from each of the major US carriers, And three 5G phones, one from
each of the major US carriers. The 4G phones are generally
the Galaxy S10 series And the 5G phones are
the Galaxy S20 series. They’re velcroed to wooden boards To keep them stable on the drive. As you can see on the back, I’ve labeled what
carrier each phone is on. But I don’t necessarily see
that while we’re driving. We run software from our
friends at Ookla speed test Which runs a speed test every two minutes, Checking the speed at this location. Here, for instance, are
the speeds for AT&T 4G Here at Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. You can see this is our AT&T 4G phone, And here are the speeds
marching down the screen. The 4G and 5G phones don’t
test at the same time, They’re offset by a minute
so that the two tests Don’t collide on the network. Here’s our AT&T 5G phone. And here’s our AT&T 5G speeds here At Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. Now we summarize together
All of the speeds from a given location. And then averaged out to
locations throughout the city To get our overall city speed. You can see here That not all of the 5G
phones are always in 5G mode, Especially the Verizon phone, Which has very little 5G coverage. That’s also part of why we offset The test by a minute between The 4G group and the 5G group. So you can see here that Verizon 4G speeds Here at Arthur Avenue Are actually quite good. We also have some diagnostic information That we use in case things go wrong. We chose the Galaxy S20 to test 5G Because at the time of our tests, They were the only phones in the US Which could handle all the layers of 5G Low, middle and high bands. I’m still on the road. So I don’t know what the
fastest mobile network In the US is yet. You can find out though By going to PCMag.com And looking for fastest mobile networks.
