UK businesses, consumers fail to understand benefits of 5G

A lack of clarity around 5G is helping to drive misconceptions of the next-generation network technology amongst the British public, according to research by mobile network benchmarking group Global Wireless Solutions (GWS).

The research shows that many consumers and businesses in the UK are aware of 5G, but operators and other stakeholders need to make more effort to educate the country about the wide range of benefits to be expected once 5G networks are fully deployed across the UK. These benefits include significant improvements to real-time data transfer, and enhanced remote working applications.

GWS surveyed more than 200 UK businesses (Vanson Bourne) ranging from 100 to over 5,000 employees, and more than 2,000 adults (YouGov), to gain a view of feeling around mobile network performance. The results show a level of indifference towards 5G and a lack of urgency from both consumers and businesses about adopting this new technology. This suggests that messaging about the power and benefits of 5G-enabled applications is now getting through to the British public.

The business survey found a high awareness of the future importance of 5G, with 56 percent saying 5G is already important to their business and 27 percent saying 5G will be important to their business in the future. However, despite envisaging a 5G-enabled future, only 20 percent of business cited provision of 5G applications/services as one of their top three mobile priorities for the next 12 months.

UK consumers are also aware that 5G will be important in the future, with 76 percent of adults saying they do plan to get a 5G handset. The majority of these (53%) expect to make the switch to 5G over the next three years. By comparison, 15 percent said they would never buy a 5G phone. The research also shows that Brits are not sure why they need 5G, with only 19 percent agreeing that 5G speeds will change how they use their phones. Two thirds (67%) said they would wait for 5G to become the ‘new normal’ and continue to use 4G until they are transferred automatically to 5G by their network operators.

—Telecompaper