Even though it’s constantly talked about these days, it’s still interesting to hear about what carriers are rolling out more 5G coverage, what we can do with the faster 5G speeds, and most importantly, what those speeds are in different locations. OpenSignal recently ran some tests on 5G C-Band services and their overall speeds. Now it’s RootMetrics’ turn to run some tests and they’re focusing on what city has the fastest 5G in the US – at least within 2H 2021.
Surprisingly, the winner is one you may have never guessed – Shreveport, LA. This city not only beat out larger cities in Louisiana, but they also beat Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, and Modesto. The tests looked at aggregate 5G median download speed. The winning score of 145.3 Mbps was registered in the final six months of 2021.
It’s interesting to note that Shreveport has the smallest population in comparison to the 109 cities tested by RootMetrics. They of course only tested in cities where all three major US carriers offered 5G service. Considering how difficult it is to get adequate coverage and faster speeds out of 5G than LTE, the differences in population and terrain may play a factor here. After all, you might argue that it’s easier to deliver higher average download speeds to a small city like Shreveport than it is to the 2.7 million population we have here in Chicago.
Just check out the figure below. 5G users in Chicago are not just capable of downloading stuff faster than folks in most other big US cities, but the 5G signals are also more widely available.
You might be wondering where the results are for New York and Los Angeles. Neither city was anywhere near the top of 5G speed or 5G availability. Same goes for Miami and Philadelphia.
5G speeds have however risen everywhere from New York to LA, Miami, and Philadelphia (as well as Chicago) between the first and second half of 2021. On the flip side, New York and Philadelphia’s aggregate 5G availability figures actually declined between H1 and H2 2021, and the same happened in Washington, D.C., where speeds exploded from an average of 65.2 Mbps to 134.7 Mbps.
