Lots of noise for anything?

One week after the launch of 5G in Paris, on March 19, Orange’s new generation mobile network was able to try what had been active for several months in the center of the capital, and then in the suburbs – without violating, requiring imprisonment, the limits of the Ile-de-France.

Throughout the day of March 25, we measured its effectiveness in about fifty locations. To move from one point to another, we put two smartphones in front of us at all times to monitor the quality of the network, one on 5G and the other on 4G.

Disappointing day. We do not notice any difference between browsing the web or checking our emails. We were expecting it, so we had planned fifteen more on-demand apps to try to see the speed difference between mobiles connected on 4G and 5G. But, again, we do not see any significant difference in social networks such as Dictoc, Facebook or Pinterest, or VOD services like Netflix, YouTube, Arte or Disney. All of these apps launch just as fast on 4G as they do on 5G, all offering the same picture quality.

The only difference noticed: downloads

The same goes for Google Earth, which quickly displays its urban landscape in three dimensions on 4G, or with the caffeine that loads its magazines with a comparable average delay. Incidentally, thanks to a performance measurement tool, 4G 5G operates quickly within the first two or three milliseconds: for now, the delay of the new network is comparable to the old. The only difference we saw was the downloads. Recovers 5G connections or music tracks slightly faster, but only occasionally, saves only a second.

Finally we have to deal with heavy documents like 3D games or long videos to see a big difference. In our tests, the average download on 5G took five times less time. But we don’t always see this gain: only 60% of the time. In our 20% of shots, 4G became faster. In the remaining cases, 5G is not available.

As we were passing through Carey to Nord, we stumbled upon a train and we wanted to download a picture at full speed between two wagons. How many passengers by train or car could not watch their video to the end because they did not like the countryside?

Even though the controller heard the whistle and jumped off the train, the reason was taken: this kind of scene is rare. Isle-de-France residents do not need to download videos because they are easy to watch streaming, even on the metro, which is now properly closed on 4G. When it comes to downloading games, most gamers can wait more than five minutes at a time – or prefer to download huge files of this kind via WiFi anyway from home.

5G is not available everywhere

Because 5G has many drawbacks. Its credibility is currently as disappointing as the northern and western suburbs of Paris. While three of the four small bars next to the 5G icon show up on the phone, they should ensure good connection quality, with downloads occasionally failing, or prolonged. These days, we want to switch phones to 4G because the “older generation” network is incomparably more reliable.

In addition, 5G is not available everywhere. The Orange cover map However it declares that Paris and its immediate suburbs are all theoretically closed. On the streets, our 5G smartphone had to drop back 20% of the time on 4G. There are many white areas as far as the heart of the Esplanade de la Defense, the ultra-modern business district. In the northern suburbs of Paris, when approaching the boundaries of the 5G coverage area, the smartphone is connected hundreds of meters with a weak network, while 4G is very fast in these places.

Unlike the 4G coverage card, the Orange 5G card makes no promises about the interiors of buildings. The operator chose to use mainly High frequency antennas, Which penetrates badly. In fact, internally, we only captured half the time compared to 90% on 4G. Far away from windows, doors and ceilings, the signal is lost. In the foundations of Carey to Nord, where hundreds of thousands of passengers pass through every day, 5G security is zero on the RER A tracks or the 5th line of the metro.

Last disappointment: In the places where we tested it, sending captured family videos on mobile seemed a bit slower than 4G. Our upstream flow metrics confirm it: 5G is very slow when trying to send a large file. Fortunately, for many users, this type of sending is rarely urgent, and above all very rare.

Orange Network “Optimization Stage”

For now, the Orange 5G seems to have only one advantage: it significantly speeds up the downloading of games and series. The advantage of this light is still balanced by the weaknesses of the young technology, which is unreliable and gives its safety disappointment.

But this observation is only a snapshot of the Orange 5G network, which is valid in some places in the Ile-de-France at the end of March. After all, this table is set to change a lot. On the one hand, the 5G network is still saturated with the number of subscribers, it is Very minoritiesResidents of the Ile-de-France who work remotely, especially during this period, are often connected via WiFi.

On the other hand, according to Orange, not all 5G antennas are used yet, and the network is still in the “optimization phase”. In a few years, operators will have to replace their core network with 5G, which will improve reaction times, which are currently much better than 4G, but there are also upgrades that are less than 5G. Extremely high frequencies can increase speed in busy public places such as train stations. For now, 5G is not enough to justify any additional costs. Recommend that you wait.