Only a fifth of Britons think 5G will improve their lives
Only a fifth of Britons believe in 5G (opens in new tab) Connectivity will change their lives, suggesting that the mobile industry’s belief that the next generation of networks will transform society and industry has not captured the imagination of the general public.
The UK is the third most pessimistic country in YouGov’s ranking, with 36% saying they neither disagree nor disagree that 5G will benefit them.
Worldwide, 51% believed that 5G would improve and only 15% said it would not bring any benefit.
5G Rollout
5G networks offer faster speeds, more capacity, and much lower latency than previous generation mobile technology.
This means 5G can enable data-intensive, latency-sensitive consumer applications, support large-scale IoT networks, and connect mission critical industrial systems to cellular infrastructure for the first time.
However, it is arguable that the jump from 4G to 5G is less revolutionary in terms of mobile broadband than 3G to 4G – at least in the eyes of the consumer. Meanwhile, many of the most revolutionary services like VR and gaming are not yet mass proposition.
The findings suggest that operators and the wider mobile ecosystem still have work to do to convince consumers about the merits of 5G.
However, early adoption of the technology has not been a deterrent. Ericsson believes there will be over one billion 5G mobile subscriptions by the end of the year (opens in new tab)A figure that will reach 4.4 billion by 2027. Within five years, 5G will account for 90% of all mobile subscriptions in North America, 82% in Western Europe and 74% in Northeast Asia.