5G vs 4G: No Contest

5G is the latest generation of mobile technology, and it’s a big upgrade on 4G – particularly in 5G Standalone form (a version of 5G that’s not reliant on any legacy 4G infrastructure).

But whether standalone or non-standalone, 5G promises higher download and upload speeds, potentially lower latency, and even new use cases, like network slicing. That’s all enabled in large part through the use of higher frequency spectrum than we saw with 4G, but new technologies and infrastructure also contribute to 5G’s upgrades.

So it’s no secret that 5G is better, but just how much better? Read on to find out.

DOWNLOAD SPEED

5G is already much, much faster than 4G, and in future it could make even high-speed fibre broadband seem sluggish, as speeds are likely to improve.

Right now, the average 5G download speeds claimed by networks in the UK are around 100-250Mbps, with peak speeds apparently reaching over 1Gbps. That upper claim might be optimistic, as the top speed we’ve seen in independent tests is 916.8Mbps, recorded on Three by RootMetrics in the first half of 2025. That said, a more recent RootMetrics report covering the 2nd half of 2025 recorded a slightly lower speed of 886.6Mbps. That same report found that median 5G download speeds ranged from 111.0Mbps (on O2) to 236.7Mbps (on EE), while an Opensignal report from January 2026 put average 5G download speeds at between 89.9Mbps (on O2) and 187.0Mbps (on Three).

But in any case, it’s very, very fast, when you consider that 4G averages between around 18-36Mbps depending on network, according to October 2020 tests from Opensignal. We’re using older tests there because more recent tests don’t tend to look just at 4G, and because it’s unlikely that 4G speeds will have increased much since then.

But 5G speeds likely will further increase. As 5G develops and becomes more ‘standalone’ – rather than relying in part on 4G infrastructure, speeds could rocket up. Already the UK’s networks are starting to offer 5G Standalone in many places, but its availability will only grow.

As for the speeds we could ultimately expect from 5G, a minimum eventual expectation from Ofcom is for download speeds of 10Gbps, which would be hundreds of times faster than 4G, and enable an entire Full HD film to be downloaded in under 10 seconds. That compares with a similar number of minutes for 4G, and that’s contingent on having peak rates for the entire download, which is very rarely the case.

Download Speeds
4G real world	18-36Mbps average
4G theoretical	300Mbps
5G real world	90Mbps-1Gbps+
5G theoretical	10-50Gbps+

UPLOAD SPEED

5G is also much faster for uploads than 4G, though neither come close to what they’re capable of for downloads.

On 5G, the January 2026 Opensignal report mentioned above found that average upload speeds ranged from 11Mbps on O2 to 20.2Mbps on Three. Similarly, an Ookla report from the second half of 2025 found median upload speeds on 5G ranged from 8.28Mbps (on O2) to 13.08Mbps (on Three).

On 4G, upload speeds tend to average around 10Mbps, and there’s an even bigger difference between the top upload speeds you could theoretically get with each technology. With 4G, you can expect to top out at around 150Mbps, while on 5G it could reach 1Gbps or more.

Upload Speeds
4G real world	5-10Mbps average
4G theoretical	150Mbps
5G real world	8-20Mbps average
5G theoretical	1Gbps+

LATENCY

Latency can also affect the perception of speed, and particularly when it comes to gaming, as latency is the time it takes for data to start moving. If the latency is bad, then even with high speeds you can experience lag when online gaming. Thankfully, 5G has far superior latency to 4G, so it’s a much better choice for online gamers – for more on its impact on gamers, head to our 5G for gaming guide.

As for exactly how 5G latency compares to 4G, data from Speedtest in 2024 found unloaded 5G latency averaging 29-34ms (milliseconds) depending on network, while a newer report from them found that loaded 5G latency (which is the latency when the connection is under heavy use) averaged between 405.93-1039.19ms depending on network.

Latency on 4G tends to be higher, as the chart below shows.

Latency
4G	36-48 milliseconds*
5G real world	29-34 milliseconds
5G theoretical	1 millisecond

*Figures show the range of averages recorded by Opensignal in April 2020

COVERAGE

At the time of writing, this is one area where 4G has an advantage, as while the networks are all at around 99% UK population coverage with 4G, it’s fair to say that 5G coverage is still slightly patchy.

That said, 5G availability is far higher than it was even a year or two ago. At the time of writing, all of the UK’s networks have over 60% outdoor population coverage with 5G, while EE has almost 90% according to 2025 data from Ofcom.

Eventually, 5G is intended to give the perception of 100% coverage, as the quality, speed and predictability of the user experience will give the impression of full coverage, continuous availability and infinite capacity, whether the user is at rest or on the move, wherever the user is or is going to.

Note that the 5G figures in the chart below are ‘high confidence’ estimates for outdoor coverage at UK premises, reported by Ofcom in November 2025.

Network	4G coverage	5G coverage
EE	99%+	At least 89%
O2	99%+	At least 76%
Three	99%+	At least 71%
Vodafone	99%+	At least 64%

COST

One potential downside of 5G is the cost – and we mean both the cost to consumers and networks. With the need for a greater amount of infrastructure, the roll out costs of 5G are very high, and some of these costs are inevitably passed on to consumers.

That said, just about every network now offers 5G as standard, and while prices are often higher than they were a few years ago, it’s hard to say how much of that is related to 5G rather than inflation and other factors.

VERDICT

5G is clearly superior to 4G in almost every way – and by a wide margin. However, 5G services still don’t yet deliver the full potential in terms of speed and latency, and we still haven’t quite achieved nationwide coverage yet.

Operators are still investing to improve 4G coverage years after the first services became available, and 5G is going to require a level of investment that could make 4G deployment seem cheap in comparison.

So there’s a long road ahead, but even now, 5G is a big improvement on 4G where it’s available.