In OpenSignal’s latest report on 5G benchmarks across Asia Pacific, South Korea has come up tops once again as a leader in 5G network development. The report conducted in September highlighted that this was possible since it was the first country to launch a public 5G network in 2019 giving it ample opportunity to evolve the technology which has manifested in average 5G download and upload speeds that far exceed those of other countries in the APAC region.
On the other hand, Malaysia ranks second in 5G Download Speed Experience and third in 5G Upload Speed Experience, with scores of 295.5Mbps and 34Mbps, respectively. This performance OpenSignal said was achieved through Malaysia’s 5G wholesale network where 5G Availability ranks in the top five for APAC markets at 31.8%. Despite this positive performance from a network perspective, it added Malaysia’s MNOs are now bidding to build the country’s second 5G network.
As Opensignal has previously reported, India’s 5G Download speeds have fallen as data consumption has increased. Its 5G download score has decreased from 304Mbps in Q1 2023 to 243Mbps in this report. Mobile tends to be the primary mode of connectivity in India, and download speeds tend to be at their slowest in the evening hours when users are most likely to stream video, watch games, and do online shopping.
Indonesia lags behind other APAC markets primarily due to its lack of mobile spectrum, as the 3.5GHz band is still used by satellite services. Our Indonesian 5G users spend just 1.5% of their time with an active 5G signal (up from 1% compared to our November 2023 report). With 5G download speeds of just 54.6Mbps, Indonesia sees the least amount of uplift between 4G and 5G download speeds, with 5G download speeds averaging just 2.3x faster than 4G download speeds.
