Do 5G Networks Achieve The Proclaimed Promises? An Empirical Study Using YouTube Edge Service

The advancements in 5G mobile networks and Edge computing offer great potential for services like augmented reality and Cloud gaming, thanks to their low latency and high bandwidth capabilities. However, the practical limitations of achieving optimal latency on real applications remain uncertain This paper investigates the latency and bandwidth of 5G Networks and leverages YouTube Edge service as the practical use case. We analyze how latency and bandwidth differ between 4G LTE and 5G networks and how the location of YouTube Edge servers impacts these metrics in London, UK. Surprisingly, our observations show that 4G LTE provides lower latencies compared to 5G networks, which we attribute to the early stage of the 5G ecosystem in London, UK.