It used to be when signing up with a mobile network that you just had to worry about what allowances to choose – and maybe which phone if you were upgrading your handset too. But now increasingly you also have to choose how fast you want your data to be.
No longer do plans necessarily come with uncapped speeds as standard. Instead, many networks have started instituting speed limits on their cheaper plans, with 10Mbps being among the lowest.
Plans that are this low speed are relatively rare, but if for example you choose a ‘No Frills’ plan on EE, that’s exactly what you’ll get. So will that be fast enough for you?
How fast is 10Mbps?
10Mbps is fast enough to load simple web pages without much wait, and also to use email, scroll social media, and even stream music and podcasts. You’ll be able to stream video too, though in most cases you’ll struggle to get a smooth 4K stream, so stick to 1080p or lower.
Files also won’t download particularly fast, with a 1GB file for example taking 13 minutes and 20 seconds to download on a 10Mbps connection.
How fast can 5G get?
5G is capable of dramatically higher speeds than this – in fact even 4G is. On average, you can expect speeds of around 35Mbps on 4G, with speeds peaking at around 90Mbps. On 5G, the average is upwards of around 90Mbps, with speeds peaking at over 1Gbps.
To give some real data, Opensignal found in January 2026 that Three could achieve an average 5G download speed of 187.0Mbps, Vodafone could manage 130.9Mbps, EE averaged 92.2Mbps, and O2 hit an average of 89.9Mbps.
So even on average, 5G should be at least nine times faster than you’ll get with a 10Mbps speed cap, and it could peak at around 100 times faster.
Of course sometimes it will be lower than this too, but unless you’re somewhere with no 5G coverage and limited 4G, then you can typically expect much higher speeds than 10Mbps if you’re on a plan without speed restrictions.
Is there any need for higher speeds than 10Mbps?
The short answer is yes – though not for everyone. If you want to stream 4K content, play online games, or make video calls for example, then a speed above 10Mbps would be highly desirable.
If you’re often wanting to download large files or apps then a higher speed would also be helpful, and it’s pretty much essential for tethering – especially if you hope to share your phone’s connection with multiple devices at once.
Verdict
The average user will probably want higher speeds than 10Mbps, and if you hope to make any meaningful use of 5G, then you should look for speed caps of 100Mbps or higher (or no caps at all).
But if you’re only a very light user of mobile data – perhaps using it to check emails and browse social media but little else – then 10Mbps should get the job done. Or if you’re in an area with poor coverage and signal anyway, then shelling out for higher potential speeds might not make much difference.
Of course, you don’t necessarily need to pay extra to get more anyway, as most networks don’t restrict you to such low speeds on any of their plans, and some networks offer uncapped speeds as standard.
