Consumer articles that push the benefits of 5G will quote "100 times faster than 4G", but due to the high-frequency nature of 5G, getting answers as to what speeds you can actually expect is vague until you have a 5G device in your hand. Compared to 4G, 5G throughput falls off much more dramatically with distance from your antenna, and line-of-sight to the antenna is important too as obstacles further reduce transfer speeds you can expect.
So, with my 5G capable phone, I hit the road and sampled speed tests around some of Boston's landmarks to get some real-world speeds.
Sample Locations:
- Boston University - 150 Mbps
- Boston Common - 139 Mbps
- Porter Square - 115 Mbps
- Kenmore Square - 88 Mbps
- Central Square - 86 Mbps
- Kendall/MIT - 79 Mbps
- Seaport District - 78 Mbps
- Harvard Square - 75 Mbps
- Davis Square - 66 Mbps
- Government Center - 60 Mbps
- Longfellow Bridge - 32 Mbps
Speedtest used was Ookla Speedtest on Google Pixel 4a 5G with Google Fi. Tests run through Jan 2020.
If you want to contribute, download this speedtest app, run a speedtest on 5G and send me the exported CSV of the test results.