The “99% of the population” thing is a fun cop out the networks use

That just means they have to have coverages areas that hit 99% of houses

It doesn’t mean 99% of the country, nor that it’s fast, nor that it actually works indoors… just that if you stand outside 99% of houses you’ll technically be on 5G

Anywhere outside in the countryside or a park? Good luck

At work, an industrial park, or a shopping centre? Good luck

Indoors? Haha, no

And then on top of that it makes no reference whatsoever to contention ratios (how many customers they have per mast) or how fast the backhaul is. Both of which can dramatically limit the speed. You may technically be on 5G, but if you’re sharing one mast with 50,000 people at a festival or even 2000 in an area with a bunch of offices, it won’t actually work very well.

Same if they’re sharing a small “pipe” back to their main network, you might not actually be getting 5G speeds because although your phone and the mast are talking over 5G, the mast is sharing a pitiful amount of bandwidth amongst too many customers and it can end up slower than 4G

It’s a complete bollocks figure they like to shout about, but it means more or less fuck all