As we enter 2021, is the speed of 5G mobile phones faster or slower?

In China, 5G has blossomed in the past year. Not only have a number of innovative applications emerged in multiple industries and fields, but operators have also worked hard to build more than 700,000 5G base stations across the country, providing a good network environment for the implementation of 5G applications.

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However, after entering 2021, the Xin Kuaibao reporter found that complaints from consumers about 5G network speeds seem to be increasing. The most common complaints are "Recently, 5G mobile phone network speeds seem to be slower than before" and "Why is the mobile Internet access slower than 4G after upgrading to 5G?" In view of this, the reporter specially collected some of the latest information related to this from operators and relevant communication experts to make everyone's 5G consumption clearer and more understandable.

The full upgrade of 5G network will only support SA networking. Some early 5G mobile phones will be downgraded to 4G

In the process of rapid development of 5G network, two networking modes have emerged: SA and NSA. Because of the different construction methods, their costs and subsequent user experience are also completely different.

SA is called independent networking, which means rebuilding 5G base stations and back-end 5G networks to fully realize all the characteristics and functions of 5G networks, but the construction cost is high because all base stations and basic equipment need to be rebuilt. NSA is called non-independent networking, which is a 5G network that integrates the current 4G base stations and network deployment. The construction cost is low, and 5G base stations can be directly used to install 4G base stations to achieve switchable coverage of 5G networks and 4G networks. However, because it is limited by the 4G network, in addition to wasting more electricity, the network speed is at least twice as slow as the SA networking method.

In order to quickly seize the development opportunities in the 5G network market, many mobile phone manufacturers chose to launch 5G mobile phones with NSA non-independent networking mode. Among them, Qualcomm of the United States directly supported NSA non-independent networking mode 5G by connecting Snapdragon series chips to external 5G baseband chips.

Recently, Sichuan Unicom revealed that domestic operators will cancel NSA networking 5G base stations and switch to SA networking 5G base stations to provide users with a more stable and power-saving 5G network. If the news is true, then early mobile phones equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chips will directly become 4G mobile phones, that is to say, 5G single-mode models such as Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ series, A90, Xiaomi 9 Pro 5G, iQOO Pro, vivo NEX3, etc. will face the risk of "downgrading" to 4G network speed.

A Sichuan netizen revealed that he had gone to the business hall to verify and found that there was indeed relevant news and measures. Sichuan is currently the first province to shut down NSA 5G base stations, and if you adjust your mobile phone to only turn on NSA mode, the 5G signal will disappear directly. After switching to NSA+SA mode, it will be available again.

4G packages can also connect to 5G networks

5G packages have different prices and network speeds

In addition to the upgrade of 5G networking mode, according to the information on the WeChat official account of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: If you are currently using a 4G package, as long as your 5G mobile phone is set up correctly, you can also access the 5G network and enjoy faster network speeds within the coverage of the 5G network, but the network speed has a certain upper limit (usually 300Mbps). Even if they are all 5G networks, the 5G network services enjoyed by packages of different prices are also different.

Currently, operators have not announced how to rank the network speeds in 5G services. But according to consumer feedback, a basic principle is "how much money you spend, how fast the network you use".

For example, the description of China Mobile's Enjoy Package shows that starting from December 27, 2019, those who switch to 30GB and 50GB packages will automatically be connected to the 5G Premium Service; those who switch to 100GB and above will automatically be connected to the 5G Extreme Service. China Unicom has also made tiered arrangements in its 5G packages, and only 5G packages of 199 yuan per month or above can enjoy the Extreme Service.

What is the difference between "Premium" and "Extreme Speed"? Specifically, "Premium Service" refers to the 5G network peak rate of 500Mbps and priority access guarantee in busy areas; "Extreme Speed ​​Service" refers to the 5G network peak rate of 1Gbps and priority access guarantee in busy areas.

In addition to the two network levels mentioned above, there is also "5G basic service", which only provides a 5G network peak rate of 300Mbps, which is the entry-level 5G network service accessed by the aforementioned "5G mobile phone + 4G package".

Popularization of 5G does not involve the removal of 4G base stations

No speed reduction for 4G network

After excluding the above reasons, some people may still feel that 5G Internet access is not particularly fast. In response to users' questions, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently stated that under normal circumstances, the peak downlink rate of 5G network is more than 10 times that of 4G. The specific network speed is determined by factors such as the performance of the 5G mobile phone, the selected 5G package, the 5G network coverage of the location, and the number of users using it at the same time.

In fact, according to the latest test results of a foreign research organization, in the global 5G network speed competition, China's average 5G download speed reached 270Mbps. Although it is not as good as South Korea (600Mbps), the second largest in the world, it is 4 times faster than the latest 5G average speed in the United States (the average speed in January this year was only 47-58Mbps).

In addition, we often see some users saying on the Internet that the 4G network speed has slowed down. There are even some rumors that "operators deliberately restrict 4G base stations and the network becomes stuck and slow in order to get 4G users to upgrade to 5G packages", or "in order to popularize 5G, operators are constantly dismantling 4G base stations and upgrading them with 5G equipment, which has caused the 4G network to become worse and worse."

In fact, operators and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have repeatedly denied these claims since the middle of last year. In January this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology once again made it clear that they would never, and will never, require operators to reduce or limit 4G speeds. The reason why 4G speeds have dropped in certain areas and at certain times is that the current 4G network is not able to support the traffic of new users.

According to the data, in 2020, China's single-user mobile data traffic increased by nearly 30%, which is a very large increase. Given that the three major operators have stopped investing in large-scale expansion of 4G networks, it is not difficult to understand that the Internet speed of users in some areas has slowed down. The decline is relatively large in densely populated urban areas, while the relative speed drop in sparsely populated areas is not very obvious.