Today marks 5 years of 5G: Has it lived up to your expectations?

Five years ago, on April 3, 2019, Verizon switched on its 5G network in cities like Chicago and Minneapolis. Fast forward to 2024, and the United States now boasts the most number of cities with 5G network access in the world. According to 5G Americas, the US experienced a staggering 64% year-on-year growth in 5G connections by the end of 2023. By the end of last year, 5G in North America reportedly totaled a whopping 197 million connections, with telcos offering some of the fastest 5G plans in the world.

But five years on, what has 5G really changed? Here is a fun statistic to show you how mobile download speeds have changed in the past five years because of 5G connectivity and other network improvements.

In January 2019, T-Mobile and Verizon were tied as the fastest 4G providers in the US offering around 21 Mbps download speeds. As of Feb 2024, T-Mobile is the fastest provider in the US with average overall download speeds of 109 Mbps. Thats a jump of over 400% all thanks to 5G.

While 5G has shown a lot of promise, and almost every smartphone is a 5G phone today, the technology is not without its challenges. Since its deployment, users have faced multiple issues.

4G networks have a much more dense coverage than 5G. Hence, the network is not as freely available as LTE. This means people frequently see their 5G connections fall back to 4G.

5G is also an expensive technology to deploy, and these costs are passed down to consumers. This is why 5G plans are inherently more expensive than 4G plans.

Moreover, 5G connectivity also impacts your phone’s battery life and guzzles more juice than a 4G LTE.

Many other factors work against 5G and those that work in its favor. We also have 5G Advanced deployment to look forward to, promising faster speeds, better energy efficiency, and other benefits.

But as it stands today, five years after its release, we want to know what you think of 5G. Have you noticed a considerable speed difference between 4G and 5G? Take our poll and share your thoughts in the comments section below.