Ookla analysis has revealed that most 5G networks are powerful enough to support text-centric AI, but performance benchmarks fall significantly short of the latencies required for emerging AI use cases.

Text-based large language models (LLMs) require around 50 milliseconds (ms), which, according to benchmarking research undertaken by Ookla, is achieved in 18 out of 22 markets it assessed, while 13 markets currently achieve the latencies required for conversational voice (under 40ms).

However, future AI modalities, such as augmented reality (AR) vision, will need a minimum multiserver latency of less than 30ms, while the ultimate target multi-server latency to support such services will be sub-10ms – which isn’t available in any market at this time. Ookla noted that “minimum thresholds represent the level below which users are likely to notice degraded quality” while “target thresholds represent where consistently good performance becomes achievable.”

In its most recent report, Ookla found that the dominant AI traffic on mobile networks today is text-based LLMs, which generate a two-phase traffic pattern. Firstly, a user prompt travels upstream to a cloud inference server, then the response streams back token by token in irregular bursts determined by the server-side compute load, which can cause delays, similar to messaging.

Latency was also found to generally hold up under normal conditions but degrades sharply under load, and in an uneven way. Degradation ratios run from 3.7x to 11.4x across markets, and the gap between operators inside a single market is as wide as the gap between markets.

In the report, Ookla also argued that benchmarking needs to move beyond traditional measures. In judging AI readiness, Ookla said that performance indicators, such as upload capacity, latency and path to the cloud, are favoured over indicators such as download speeds, something for which the Accenture-owned company is well known (and trusted) for benchmarking.

The geographic breakdown shows that of the 22 markets benchmarked, only Singapore meets the minimum multiserver latency required for future modalities, such as AR vision, at 24.6ms (though that is still some way from achieving the target threshold of sub-10ms).