Opensignal has announced its 5G Global Awards 2025, assessing real-world 5G performance across national mobile networks worldwide. Based on billions of measurements collected from devices during the first half of 2025 (1 Jan – 28 Jun), the awards recognize operators excelling across six key measures: Download Speed, Video Experience, Games Experience, Voice App Experience, Reliability, and Coverage Experience.
In large land-area markets, Brazil’s Vivo leads with average download speeds of 362.1 Mbps, followed by Claro and TIM, reinforcing Brazil’s reputation for world-class 5G speeds. In smaller markets, South Korea’s KT records the fastest speeds at 470.7 Mbps, surpassing last year’s leaders SK Telecom and LG U+. Operators in Qatar, Guatemala, and Singapore also earn high recognition.
Spectrum availability drives strong 5G speed improvements. In Poland, T-Mobile, Orange, and Play are recognized as 5G Global Rising Stars, with T-Mobile boosting speeds by 140.7 Mbps year-on-year. In the Netherlands, Odido posts the largest gain among small markets with a 151.1 Mbps increase.
T-Mobile in the U.S. delivers the most extensive 5G coverage among large land-area markets, scoring 8.1/10. In smaller markets, Singapore’s Singtel leads at 9.1, ahead of M1, SIMBA, and StarHub, reflecting Singapore’s strong 5G coverage.
Japanese operator au achieves the highest 5G Games Experience score of 91.9 in large markets, supported by SoftBank and German operators Telekom, Vodafone, O2, and 1&1. In smaller markets, Singtel leads at 92.9, alongside KT, SK Telecom, LG U+, and operators in Singapore, Switzerland, Czechia, Slovakia, and Hong Kong.
In large markets, au leads with a score of 85.2, while SoftBank, NTT docomo, and DIGI Romania perform strongly. Small-market winners include Hungary’s One and Yettel, Vodafone Czechia, Orange Slovakia, and T-Mobile Czechia.
au Japan tops large markets with 976.1 points (on a 100–1000 scale), while A1 Slovenia (970.6) and Vodafone Czechia (977) excel in smaller markets. Other high-performing operators include those from Japan, Canada, Romania, Germany, the U.S., Poland, Finland, Slovakia, Austria, Denmark, South Korea, Hungary, Bulgaria, Uruguay, and Albania.
According to Opensignal, by mid-2025:
There are 2.5 billion 5G connections worldwide, representing 28% of all mobile connections, projected to reach 5.7 billion (57%) by 2030.
Highest adoption is in South Korea (61%) and the U.S. (62%), with Denmark and Norway at 59%.
Latin America is accelerating, led by Brazil (21%) and Chile (29%).
5G Standalone (SA) deployments are expanding, with 77 operators across 43 markets offering SA to some degree.
SA networks provide faster download and upload speeds, lower latency, and higher reliability, enhancing consumer experiences and enabling enterprise applications in manufacturing, transport, and media.
Outlook
The 2025 awards show that 5G performance is increasingly defined by reliability, coverage, and real-world user experience rather than headline speeds. Operators such as T-Mobile (USA), Singtel (Singapore), and au (Japan) deliver balanced excellence across gaming, video, voice apps, and overall network performance.
The growing deployment of 5G Standalone (SA) networks is unlocking 5G’s full potential, offering ultra-low latency, network slicing, and enterprise-grade reliability, signaling strong growth prospects for both consumer and enterprise applications worldwide.
Source: https://www.fonearena.com/blog/465783/global-5g-adoption-reach-5-7-billion-by-2030-opensignal.html
