New Jersey 5G users had the best experiences in three categories using the technology on a smartphone, while Texas and Illinois 5G users had the best experiences in single categories, according to a new report from Opensignal.
This report looked primarily at state-by-state differences, while a July report examined 5G differences among carriers, with T-Mobile faring best.
Garden state 5G users fared best with 5G availability, download speed and games experience. New York had the best 5G download speed (mean of 114 Mbps) and ranked among the top third of states for availability and video experience (Vermont, Nebraska and South Dakota tied for the best video experience). East Coast states fared the best in the report, followed by West Coast states.
California’s 5G availability was near the top at 24.7%, but it’s other 5G rankings ran further behind other states. Illinois and Texas tied for best 5G availability. With the best availability, it’s not surprising that 5G users in those two states spent the most time connected to 5G.
While Illinois fared well in the other categories, Texas’ performance in other categories ranked near the middle of the 50 states.
Even though Vermont was among the states with the best video experience, it was near the bottom of the rankings for both availability and download speeds (mean of 42 Mbps). Similarly, while Hawaii was near the top for availability and download speed (mean of 89 Mbps), it had the lowest scores for video experience and games experience.
“By comparing 5G availability with demographic data from the U.S. Census Bureau, we found that our users on average spent a higher proportion of time with an active 5G connection in states having a higher percentage of urban population,”said Opensignal’s Francesco Rizzato in a blog post.
The data comes from Opensignal research collected during the period May through July 2021. The data suggests that mobile operators are focusing their 5G investments in highly and densely populated states. No surprise there.
“This means people in less populated states, or those with a significant rural population like Maine and West Virginia, will likely have to wait further before seeing 5G bridge the urban-rural mobile experience divide,” says Rizzato.
