A new analysis from mobile metrics firm Opensignal has shown that smartphone users saw much faster download speeds connected to 5G than when using WiFi in the Philippines.
For multiplayer mobile gaming, 5G also delivered a superior experience to WiFi, unlike older 4G which was noticeably inferior to WiFi.
The quality of the 5G experience shows that 5G has the potential to offer better connectivity inside homes, shops, offices and other locations even where WiFi is already available.
While smartphone users’ WiFi download speeds were on average 10.4 Mbps (66.1%) faster than those seen on 4G, 5G speeds were a 112.4-Mbps faster than the average speeds of 26.3 Mbps observed when connected to WiFi.
“Clearly, the arrival of 5G changes the balance between cellular and WiFi connectivity — as 5G cellular connections are typically faster than on WiFi, whereas WiFi has the advantage when cellular users are connected to 4G,” the report said.
Filipino smartphone users clocked up an impressive 138.6 Mbps for 5G Download Speed — 5.3 times and 8.8 times faster than the average download speeds seen when connected to WiFi or 4G, respectively.
The same cannot be said for upload speeds, as the average upload speeds seen by users when connected to WiFi (14.4 Mbps) were 1.6 Mbps (12.6%) faster than those seen when using 5G. However, 5G Upload Speed score was 3.1 times higher than the 4.1 Mbps they observed for 4G Upload Speed.
Turning to one of the pastimes that has benefited from the pandemic, Filipino users had a better experience when playing multiplayer mobile games on smartphones when connected to 5G than on WiFi, given their corresponding scores of 62.5 and 59.5 points for Games Experience on a 100-point scale, respectively.
Opensignal’s Games Experience measured how mobile users experience real-time multiplayer mobile gaming on an operator’s network. Measured on a scale of 0-100, it analyzed how the multiplayer mobile gaming experience is affected by network conditions including latency, packet loss and jitter to determine the impact on gameplay and the overall experience.
Similarly, when it comes to streaming video on smartphones, users in the Philippines had their best experience when connected to 5G. Their 5G Video Experience was an impressive 20.9 points (43.9%) higher on a 100-point scale than their Video Experience when connected via WiFi.
“The new Opensignal analysis showed the arrival of 5G means that cellular connections are no longer always inferior to WiFi. In fact, average 5G download speeds are faster than WiFi and 5G currently enables the best experience in the Philippines on average when playing multiplayer mobile games or streaming video,” the report said.
“However, WiFi will continue to have an important role — especially when backing up files and downloading large apps due to the low cost of data it provides compared to many mobile plans,” it added.
The report, however, said 5G services need to expand considerably because in the majority of locations only 4G is available.
