Data consumption with the 5G network is much higher than with the current 4G network. Here’s how much you consume by doing a simple speed test
5G has also made its debut in Italy. Although there are still few cities covered and some youthful problems do not allow to take full advantage of the potential of 5G, many have carried out tests to understand the benefits of a super-fast connection. To download a movie from Netflix or a video game from Steam it takes a few minutes, a huge time saving compared to the “old” 4G connection.
To surf at very high speeds has a downside: the data consumption is much higher. And although there are more and more gigs available in subscriptions, they may prove to be insufficient when 5G is available throughout Italy. Understanding how much 5G really consumes could help phone operators to optimize phone subscriptions and offer more gigs to users, without increasing the monthly price. These first months will serve as a test for the future development of the 5G network in Italy.
What are the 5G smartphones available in Italy
For the moment, the 5G smartphones available in Italy can be counted on the fingers of one hand: Xiaomi Mi Mix 3, LG V50 ThinQ and Samsung Galaxy S10 5G. To buy them you need to subscribe to 5G with the only two phone operators that have launched their super-fast network for the moment (Tim and Vodafone).
And the other companies? 5G smartphones from Huawei, OnePlus, Vivo and Oppo will arrive by the end of the year. The only one lagging behind is Apple, which plans to launch a 5G iPhone only in 2020.
How much does 5G consume: early tests
In these early weeks, the 5G network has proven to be erratic. Just moving a few meters is enough to have different performances between them. These are normal problems for a technology that has yet to be perfected. Even the maximum speed reached is lower than what the super-fast network can really offer.
The tests carried out, however, revealed an indisputable fact: when you are in a point covered by 5G, to download a movie or a video game it takes very few seconds. But that’s not all. If you play online in mutiplayer there are no problems of lag or slowdown. To offer a service of this kind, however, there is a downside that can not be ignored: the data consumption is much higher.
In recent days we have tried to make several tests of 5G network speed to understand which areas were covered. It only took 10 speedtests to consume over 15GB of data. On a monthly subscription that makes 60GB available, that’s over 25%. When the superfast network is up and running, it will be very difficult for users to make it to the end of the month with only 40 or 60GB of data in their subscription. Also in anticipation of the fact that in the coming years more and more on-demand and streaming services will arrive. Such as Google Stadia, which recommends users to use a 5G connection to play at their best. We’ll see in the next months/years how the situation will evolve and if phone operators will think about ad hoc offers for the super-fast network.