Almost seven years after its introduction, 5G is widespread across Europe. Yet a study from Opensignal has found that European infrastructure remains almost universally Non-Standalone (NSA), with 4G infrastructure still carrying the vast majority of connectivity, deployed as a deliberate stepping stone to get 5G to market quickly rather than to unlock its full capabilities.
The study examined the state of the mobile industry across 29 European markets in the first quarter of 2026, using data from the EU-27 (excluding Malta), the UK, Norway and Switzerland.
Opensignal noted that what users see and what they’re connected to are two different things. That is to say, while 5G availability is displayed on 5G users’ smartphone screens more than 70% of the time, on average, only 14.5% of European connection time is actually spent on 5G. Instead, 4G infrastructure is still carrying connectivity 82.9% of the time.
Overall, 5G availability exceeded 78% across Europe, surpassing 90% in Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Cyprus. The data found that the 5G infrastructure footprint has now reached maturity across the region, extending well into the less-populated rural areas in most countries.
The gap between 5G signal availability and usage was found to be wide in every market. Swedish 5G users, for example, saw a 5G signal 93% of the time, but were actively connected to it for just 21% of the time. In the UK, this was 57% and 20%. Finland stood apart as the only market where 5G users’ time on 5G exceeded a third of all connection time, by far the highest in the region, at 37.9%. In Finland, a 5G signal was available 77.5% of the time.
What was beyond doubt was the performance uplift of 5G compared with 4G, in particular 5G Standalone (SA), for which responsiveness was called out as its most tangible. Average download speed on 5G was measured as more than triple the 4G average, having reached 191.7Mbps on average in the first quarter of 2026.
Consistent quality scores, the analyst’s measure of holistic network experience, were also 4.6 percentage points higher on 5G, which Opensignal said reflected the share of user tests meeting quality thresholds needed for the most common application requirements.
The study also found that 10 of 11 operators reduced latency on 5G SA, with gains ranging from 5% to 32% over NSA. This result, the analysis stressed, held true regardless of deployment or spectrum choices, even where download speed and consistent quality gains did not materialise.
And while the growth of 5G SA was a real phenomenon, the study found that widespread deployment in Europe was localised to just 11 networks. In the first quarter of 2026, just three operators – 3 (Austria), Sunrise (Switzerland) and Movistar (Spain) – were carrying more than a third of 5G users’ time on 5G SA. At the country level, wider 5G SA deployment is currently uncorrelated with how well an existing network performs regionally.
Somewhat ironically, the study found that operators making the largest strides with SA were often the region’s laggards, being committed to large infrastructure upgrades to catch up. Opensignal concluded that 5G SA was something of “a forward bet”, placed disproportionately by the operators with the most ground to make up.
The scale of 5G SA roll-out was found to be driven by commercial strategy, not technical capability. The European operators carrying the highest share of users’ time on 5G SA were 3 (Austria), Sunrise (Switzerland), Movistar (Spain), Orange (Spain) and Free Mobile (France). Opensignal highlighted the fact that all of these made 5G SA the default for their network customers, with no premium tariff or other switchover friction.
Operators that instead sell 5G SA as a premium or enterprise product cluster in the single to low double digits.
Another key technical finding was that, unlike in previous years, mobile spectrumis no longer the limiting factor. Mid-band is assigned across every European market included in the analysis.
Going forward, the analyst said what is left for widespread 5G SA deployment is the commitment to modernisation through build density and migration of traffic onto the new core. The question that matters now is not whether 5G is available, but how it is deployed.
