Vodafone says its 5G Ultra subscribers can also receive 5G when roaming in Europe. But in Spain and Germany it was almost non-existent.
Vodafone has made strides in recent years to expand its 5G network, offering roaming on its non-standalone network in Spain, Germany, the Republic of Ireland and Italy. This service, which piggybacks on existing 4G infrastructure, is a welcome speed improvement for customers.
However, when put to the test using the SignalTracker app, we did not receive any evidence that our Vodafone 5G device was actually getting a 5G non-standalone signal in Germany. Germany is quite a notable absence, as Vodafone Germany was the first operator to launch a commercial 5G standalone network in Europe. In our Spanish tests, Vodafone also fell significantly short with 90% of test results being some form of 4G.
Furthermore, Vodafone has set a target for itself so that by 2030, 60% or 3.6 billion 5G subscriptions worldwide will be 5G standalone (5G SA) enabled. In research conducted with Ericsson, it found consumers are willing to pay up to 15% more to enhance their connection for sports games, concerts and major events.
5G SA, which is not offered by all operators, uses independent 5G infrastructure including both the wireless connection and a dedicated computer system. The more widespread 5G non-standalone (5G NSA) uses the pre-existing 4G network and computer systems to offer improved speeds and latency. It is not as fast as 5G SA but can offer downloads in excess of 100 Mbps.
When looking exclusively at Vodafone 5G results in Europe, the SignalTracker App found no 5G non-standalone or standalone in Germany when roaming.
Vodafone says Germany and Spain are two of the countries where you can “roam with 5G wherever it’s available“. In our tests the availability in Germany was non-existent and was only slightly better in Spain.
In Spain, only 10% of our tests came back as non-standalone 5G and 51% were limited to the slower 4G network. Consumers paying for 5G ultra and being promised ten times faster in Europe will be disappointed when getting less than what they paid for.
Furthermore, in 44% of our tests, the device would display a 5G icon when it was actually connected to 4G.
Bar chart showing percentage of Spanish results for each mobile generation
90% of the time when roaming using Vodafone in Spain, you will be getting a 4G signal.
This occurs when the device connects to a 5G equipped base station but does not use its faster capabilities, instead connecting via 4G signal. This misleading situation creates an issue when customers feel they are getting no tangible improvement from 5G when in reality it is just a 4G connection.
Bar chart showing percentage of German test results for each mobile generation
In Germany, our results on the Vodafone network yielded no 5G non-standalone, with results consisting almost entirely of 4G or 4G with a 5G icon.
62% of our results from the country were 4G with a 5G icon, with the remaining 38% also being 4G displayed more directly.
Visitors may have assumed they were getting 5G when in fact they were using the slower 4G network.
Curious about your roaming data signal? Are you one of the more expensive 5G SA networks and want to know your download speeds? Download the SignalTracker app from the Google Play Store and put it to the test for free.
