It is actually very difficult to even send iMessages at those speeds, and forget about sending a photo to someone. If I'm not on my wifi at home, my phone is almost useless as anything but a phone.
Verizon's Nationwide 5G is slower than 4G: https://www.pcmag.com/news/heres-why-verizon-iphone-users-mu...
AT&T is in the same boat as Verizon: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/09/atts-...
T-Mobile is in a similar boat as they have a narrow chunk of 600Mhz dedicated to 5G service, but they own a bunch of spectrum right above 2.4Ghz WiFi (usable with much more powerful radios) that should enable 1100Mbps speeds and higher, but it will take another year or two to see it widely deployed.
Verizon is very wireless spectrum starved right now, AT&T is in a bit better position but still needs more sub-6Ghz spectrum, hence heavy spending to buy 3.5Ghz spectrum: https://www.lightreading.com/ossbss/will-c-band-auction-set-...?
T-Mobile has also been doing a big rural buildout, and even built a map to show coverage on all major carriers: https://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/lte-comparison-map
Everyone in town just chalks it up to that is the way it goes, but worse than that, we only have one internet provider in our area, and from Christmas to New Year, we had a total of 50 hours without internet.
We live in a tiny tourist town that is a 45 minute express train ride to/from NYC, and while we may be close in travel, we are very distant in our available amenities.