Slow 5G Data on Samsung Galaxy S25 In Downtown Toronto - How Can I Improve The Speed?

[AmazingFinance1]

Hello Friends,

I am on a 5G Canada/US/Mexico plan and have been using my brand new (purchased directly from Samsung) Galaxy S25 with a physical Public Mobile nano- sim (which I have had since 2016) over the past 2 months in downtown Toronto where I live, work, and commute.

I have noticed often times, like basically every day during my commute to work, where I am working or I am taking the streetcar (above ground commute), my phone will say "5G+" with full signal strength (all bars) yet when I am scrolling through Facebook reels, or loading up comments on various Facebook posts, or using the Reddit app, or watching YouTube videos, there is SIGNIFICANT lag. I am talking 20 seconds to 30 seconds for these activities (that is how long it takes to load up, or load a portion). Why am I getting lag 15 seconds into a 25 or 30 second Facebook reel over 5G? 

Contrast this to when I am at home and on my own home WiFi network (Rogers Ignite Internet) and I try to do these same activities, there is ZERO lag.
Based on this experience, I am convinced it has to do with the Public Mobile 5G service/reception, as these activities work perfectly fine when I am at home on WiFi.

What can I do to improve this? Are there 5G settings I can change within the Samsung phone? Is my phone defective?

What other info do I need to share to help diagnose this problem and come up with a resolution? 
Thanks for reading.

[AmazingFinance1]

I think the speed is being throttled.

I tried this and did not notice much of a difference.

[sheytoon · Accepted solution]

There's been multiple reports of throttling on Telus for videos. They always had traffic optimization, but it seems to be more aggressive recently with videos. 

If you have access to a VPN, give it a try. It should hide the traffic from Telus and allow you to get full speeds for loading videos.

[AmazingFinance1]

yes this is primarily when loading videos or Facebook "reels" or YouTube "shorts"

[sheytoon]

@AmazingFinance1 is this mainly when loading videos?

[will13am]

@AmazingFinance1 , I assume that signal strength is not a problem in the areas that you have experiencing slow data.  I normally do not suggest this but have you tried doing a speed test to see if the local network is experiencing high congestion?  I have read online that youtube is being traffic shaped.  I personally hate the youtube app and never use it.  I use newpipe which is ad free and trouble free as well.   

[slusagm]

Try Reset network settings and see if it works

of course, make sure you turn off power safe and data saver

you can also try changing the network mode to LTE, that might surprise you as in some area, the LTE signal could be better than 5G