Peak download speeds for 5G in several early launch markets clocked-in at more than double those of 4G, Opensignal research discovered, with the quickest services found in the US, South Korea and Switzerland.

The company assessed the highest download speeds for 4G and 5G services across Australia, the UK, USA, UAE, Italy, South Korea, Switzerland and Spain.

In the US the maximum speed of 5G was 2.7-times higher than 4G at 1.815Gb/s. The next fastest was Switzerland (1.145Gb/s) followed by South Korea (1.071Gb/s), with these three markets significantly ahead of the others.

Every market measured recorded a significant speed uplift from using 5G with the exceptions of Australia, which actually had a lower speed than 4G, and Spain which was almost flat between the two network technologies.

In a blog discussing the findings, Opensignal VP Analysis Ian Fogg said it was no surprise maximum rates in the US were significantly higher than 4G, “because operators there are already able to use mmWave spectrum for 5G”.

“This is extremely high capacity and extremely fast spectrum, but has very limited coverage compared with the 3.4GHz to 3.8GHz 5G mid-band spectrum typically used in most of the other countries we analysed.”

The company added it expected maximum speeds to increase as more spectrum and wider channels are used.