The quality of 5G connectivity in various European cities has been assessed. In a study conducted by the benchmarking firm MedUX, which included cities like Barcelona, Paris, and Lisbon, London ranked last in 5G quality of experience, while Berlin ranked first. The report utilized robots to evaluate fixed and mobile wireless internet broadband, identifying and resolving network issues. Additionally, contributions from telecom providers, regulators, and enterprises were included to benchmark and monitor networks.
Berlin boasts the highest 5G coverage in Europe at 89.6%, making it the top city for 5G streaming with an average latency of under 40 milliseconds, the report highlights. Rafael Galarreta, Chief Marketing Officer of MedUX, remarked in an interview with CNBC, “They are very good at doing things properly. They are the best in particular worlds.”
He also emphasized Berlin’s excellence in video streaming and data for over-the-top (OTT) media services. Among European cities, Berlin, Barcelona, and Paris achieved the highest scores in the report, surpassing the 5G quality benchmark, while Lisbon, Milan, and Porto followed closely behind. In contrast, London ranked near the bottom of the European 5G networks ranking. Currently, nearly 77.5% of the city’s population has access to 5G on their devices, which is below the urban average.
London also lags in downlink speeds, providing users with an average download speed of 143 megabits per second (Mbps), in contrast to 528 Mbps for Lisbon, 446 Mbps for Porto, and 326 Mbps for Barcelona, as indicated by the report’s data. Alongside London, Munich in Germany ranked as the second-worst city for 5G downlink speeds, with average download speeds of 259 Mbps.
Galaretta highlighted that the UK is facing challenges primarily in speed, accessibility, and network responsiveness. He emphasized that network responsiveness directly impacts latency, which is crucial for data-intensive applications such as online gaming, especially cloud gaming, where games are continuously delivered to users through remote data centers.
