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Mobile users in Britain were hit by the slowest average 5G download speeds of any G7 country in 2023, according to data, despite ministers’ emphasis on the benefits of the technology to economic growth.
UK mobile users had an average 5G download speed of 118.2 megabits per second between August 1 and October 29 2023, down 13 per cent from 136.5 mbps in the same period in 2022, according to a study by research company Opensignal shared with the Financial Times.
That was significantly slower than in France, where mobile users tracked by Opensignal had the fastest average 5G download speed of 221.1 mbps, and left Britain as the worst-performing member of the group of advanced economies. In 2022, the UK was the joint third best-performing country.
The UK has lagged other nations on high-speed fifth-generation mobile phone networks in part due to disruption caused by the government’s ban on kit from Huawei, the Chinese telecoms equipment maker, amid national security concerns.
The UK was second to last on average 5G upload speeds, unchanged from 2022, with mobile users tracked by Opensignal experiencing 14.6 mbps between August and October 2023. Only Japan was behind at 12.5 mbps.
The UK government said in April that it had met its goal to deliver a basic 5G signal for the majority of the population by 2027.
At the same time, it set a new target for nationwide coverage of standalone 5G — which it said would enable applications such as remote healthcare and self-driving cars — to all populated areas by 2030.
Technology secretary Michelle Donelan said 5G would be “the cornerstone” of the UK’s digital economy and that widespread adoption of the technology could result in £159bn in productivity benefits by 2035.
Dean Bubley, director at advisory firm Disruptive Analysis, said 5G had been rolled out “fairly slowly” in the UK.
In addition to the Huawei ban and planning permission rules for towers that enable the high-speed technology, he said there had been “no real pull for the average user to deliberately seek it out”.
Among the users it tracked, Opensignal also reported a decline in average 5G download speeds in 11 out of 12 UK regions between August 1 and October 29 2023, compared with the same period in 2022.
Speeds in Northern Ireland fell 28 per cent year on year, the largest decline in percentage terms, while the biggest drop in absolute terms of 35.3 mbps was registered in the East Midlands. London experienced no statistically significant change.
Sam Fenwick, principal analyst at Opensignal, said one of the main factors behind the declines was the extra traffic on the UK’s 5G networks, which had created “some congestion during the busiest times of day”.
The government said it had taken steps to make it “easier and cheaper” for operators to deploy 5G “whilst protecting our telecoms networks”. These included updating planning regulations in England and introducing measures that supported upgrades of sites to 5G, it said.
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