Annual Global 5G Awards Name Worldwide Winners, Leaders, And Rising Stars from Billions of Real-World User Experiences

Opensignal, a global independent consumer connectivity analytics and insights company, today announced its annual Opensignal 5G Global Mobile Network Experience Awards, recognizing the providers delivering the best real-world 5G experiences across their national mobile networks. The awards assess billions of real-world user experiences across Download Speed, Video, Games, Voice App, Reliability, Coverage Experience, and — new for 2026 — Time on 5G, collected between Jan. 1 and June 29, 2026.

"The consumer connectivity experience is at the core of everything we do at Opensignal. As the role of 5G in modern life grows, the bar for what great 5G looks like keeps rising," said Shawn Heidel, President, Network Experience at Opensignal. "The best operators in the world are defined by how well they deliver on that challenge, and this year's Global 5G Award winners set the standard."

The highest-scoring provider in each category earns the 5G Global Winner title. Global Leaders make up the next tier, and a separate Rising Star recognition goes to the five operators that improved the most year-over-year, rewarding progress and recognizing the dynamic, changing nature of 5G networks. Providers are split between large and small land areas, recognizing that serving a vast, varied geography with 5G is a fundamentally different challenge from densely populated, compact areas.

Key Findings

Brazil’s Vivo retains its 5G Download Speed title in large land-area markets, with national rivals Claro and TIM close behind as Global Leaders.
In small land-area markets, South Korea's SK Telecom dethrones KT to take the crown at 495.1Mbps.
T-Mobile US and Singapore's Singtel repeat last year’s wins for 5G Coverage Experience in large and small land-area markets respectively.
In the newly introduced Time on 5G category, T-Mobile US leads large land-area and Singapore’s StarHub tops small land-area markets.
For 5G Reliability, Japan’s au and SoftBank jointly lead large land-area markets, while Denmark’s Norlys and Telenor, alongside Austria’s A1 and Slovenia’s A1, share the top spot in small land-area markets.
The Netherlands’ Odido wins 5G Video outright in small land-area markets, while 12 operators from Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Poland are tied for the large land-area title.
Germany’s Telekom and Switzerland’s Swisscom lead 5G Games Experience in large and small land-area markets, respectively.
Japan’s au wins the 5G Voice App title again in large land-area markets, and South Korea’s KT claims the win in small land-area markets.
Peru’s Bitel stands out as the biggest mover overall, claiming Rising Star recognition across five categories: Download Speed, Video, Games, Voice App, and Reliability.
South Africa’s Vodacom and Albania’s ONE each earn three Rising Star titles.

5G Global Winners

Large Land-Area (Markets with land-area greater than 200,000 km²)

5G Coverage Experience: T-Mobile (USA)
5G Download Speed: Vivo (Brazil)
5G Games Experience: Telekom (Germany)
5G Reliability: au (Japan), SoftBank (Japan)
5G Video Experience: Elisa (Finland), DNA (Finland), T-Mobile (Poland), Tele2 (Sweden), 3 (Sweden), Telenor (Sweden), Play (Poland), Telenor (Norway), ice (Norway), Orange (Poland), Telia (Norway), Telia (Finland)
5G Voice App Experience: au (Japan)
Time on 5G: T-Mobile (USA)

Small Land-Area (Markets with land-area less than 200,000 km²)

5G Coverage Experience: Singtel (Singapore)
5G Download Speed: SK Telecom (South Korea)
5G Games Experience: Swisscom (Switzerland)
5G Reliability: Telenor (Denmark), Norlys (Denmark), A1 (Austria), A1 (Slovenia)
5G Video Experience: Odido (Netherlands)
5G Voice App Experience: KT (South Korea)
Time on 5G: StarHub (Singapore)

The full report, including a complete list of Winners, Leaders, Rising Stars and qualifying operators, as well as markets, methodology, and graphics are available at https://insights.opensignal.com/2026/09/5g-global-awards-2026/dt.

About Opensignal

Opensignal is a global independent consumer connectivity analytics and insights company, delivering an unmatched combination of real-world network data and competitive market intelligence. Its insights are fueled by 50+ billion daily data points from over 100 million devices worldwide on mobile, fixed broadband, and satellite networks, alongside pricing, promotions, and competitive conditions, showing how consumers actually experience connectivity and why they switch. In addition to public network benchmark reports and market insights, Opensignal delivers this intelligence through its portfolio of premium solutions, including Opensignal Network Experience Suite, Opensignal Subscriber Analytics, Frontline Network Experience, and GeoResults. Headquartered in Boston, Opensignal has offices in Canada, the UK, Poland and Singapore. For more information, visit https://opensignal.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260928416789/en/

Alexandra Trask
press@opensignal.com

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