# 5G on part of the fleet — France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands Source: https://proxuno.com/blog/5g-mobile-proxies-france-germany-italy-netherlands Updated: 2024-06-11 > 5G-capable modems are now in service on nine carriers in four countries. What 5G changes for a proxy — throughput and latency — what it does not change, and how we handle cells that fall back to 4G. Starting with release 3.5, part of the mobile fleet runs on **5G-capable modems**. They are in service today on nine networks: | Country | 5G carriers | |---|---| | France | Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom | | Germany | Telekom, Vodafone | | Italy | TIM, Vodafone Italia | | Netherlands | KPN, Odido | When you order on one of these carriers, the proxy is assigned to a 5G-capable modem whenever one is available, and the proxy page shows the radio technology the modem currently reports. Other carriers continue on 4G. This post explains what you should — and should not — expect from the change. ## What 5G changes ### Throughput On the mid-band spectrum European operators use for 5G (mostly the 3.4–3.8 GHz range, band n78), a single modem can sustain far more bandwidth than on 4G. In our racks we typically measure download throughput two to four times higher than on the same carrier's 4G, with the largest gains during busy hours, when 4G cells are congested. For most proxy workloads — HTML pages, API calls, search results — throughput was not the bottleneck. It matters for media-heavy browsing, headless browsers loading full pages with images and scripts, and app testing over mobile networks. ### Latency Round-trip time from the modem to nearby servers drops by a few milliseconds to a few tens of milliseconds, depending on the carrier and the cell. The difference is noticeable on workloads with many sequential requests — a headless browser opening a page that triggers dozens of resource loads, for instance. ### Rotation speed Attaching to a 5G non-standalone network still involves a 4G anchor, so rotation time does not change much: still typically 5 to 10 seconds. ## What 5G does not change ### The IP address type 5G subscribers sit behind the same carrier-grade NAT as 4G subscribers on the same network; in most cases they share the same public address pools. A 5G proxy gives you exactly the same kind of IP as a 4G proxy on that carrier: a mobile address shared by many real users. If a target accepts the carrier's 4G addresses, it accepts its 5G addresses, and vice versa. So 5G is a performance upgrade, not a stealth upgrade. Anyone telling you otherwise is selling a label. ### Coverage and fallback Our racks are in data centres in or near major cities, where all four countries' operators have deployed 5G. Even so, a modem can fall back to 4G: during maintenance on a 5G cell, when the 5G layer is congested, or after a reattach where the network chooses the 4G anchor only. The proxy keeps working, at 4G speeds, and moves back to 5G on a later attach. That is why we show the **current** radio technology on the proxy page rather than promising 5G permanently. We monitor the share of time each 5G modem spends on 5G and swap or relocate modems that consistently fall back. ### Standalone vs non-standalone Most 5G in Europe today is **non-standalone (NSA)**: 5G radio for data, with a 4G core and a 4G anchor for signalling. Some operators also offer **standalone (SA)** 5G with a 5G core, usually restricted to specific plans. Our modems use whichever mode the SIM plan and the carrier provide at each site. For proxy use the difference is invisible: the public IP and the CGNAT behaviour are the same. ## How the rollout was done Introducing new modems in a production fleet is mostly about not breaking anything: 1. **Qualification.** We tested several 5G module and firmware combinations for weeks on each carrier: stability over thousands of reattaches, thermal behaviour in a dense rack, recovery after power loss. 2. **Antenna work.** 3.5 GHz signals penetrate buildings less well than the lower 4G bands. Several racks needed external antennas or a different position in the room. 3. **Gradual allocation.** New 5G modems first served new orders only. Existing customers keep their modem and port across renewals; to move to a 5G modem, order a new proxy on a 5G carrier. ## Choosing 5G You do not need to do anything special. Choose one of the carriers above in the order form; carrier pages under [locations](/locations) show which networks are 5G-enabled. When does it make sense to pick a 5G carrier deliberately? - **Headless browsers and full-page loads**, where higher throughput reduces page load time. - **App and ad testing over mobile networks**, where you want realistic modern mobile conditions. - **Large file or media checks**, where 4G would be the bottleneck. For lightweight scraping and API traffic, choose by carrier reputation with your target, not by radio technology. ## What is next We will extend 5G to more of the fleet where operators have deployed it at our sites. As always, every change will be in the [changelog](/changelog), and the [mobile proxies documentation](/docs/mobile-proxies) lists current carriers and technologies per country.