As you would expect, a significant number of the questions in the poll were about 5G. I’m sure that T-Mobile’s motivation for conducting the survey is due to the fact that they are one of the few companies in the industry that are not hyping 5G. They expect 5G to start creeping into the industry in 2020 and then taking as much as a decade to become a widespread reality.
The survey started by asking if respondents had heard of various new technologies. The 5G hype isn’t fully pervasive yet with 57% having heard of the technology. For other technologies: Internet of Things – 29%; machine learning – 26%; virtual reality – 83%; artificial intelligence – 78%; cloud computing – 52% and blockchain – 19%.
One of the most interesting responses in the survey is the public expectation of when they expect to see 5G in the market place. Of those that have heard of 5G, 29% thought it was already here in late 2018. 35% more think they’ll see 5G in 2019 and another 25% expect 5G in 2020. This response has to reflect the flood of marketing hype and press releases extolling 5G. The public has been inundated for several years by articles and press releases that declare that 5G is going to solve our broadband problems by delivering huge data speeds wirelessly everywhere.
When asked more specifics about 5G, 64% were somewhat excited or very excited about 5G in general. They were also somewhat or very excited about the following attributes of 5G: faster upload and download speeds – 92%; wider network coverage – 91%; higher quality streaming video – 85%; higher quality voice calls – 89%; less lag time on mobile devices – 90%; more reliable mobile connections – 93%; greater number of connected devices – 80%; smart city data sensors – 68%; driverless vehicles – 50%; virtual reality in the work environment – 59%; smart energy grids – 75%; supercharged IoT – 64%; expanded use of drones – 47%; next generation artificial intelligence – 59%; telehealth – 68%; remote surgery – 59%; real time language translation – 72%; replacement of landline broadband connections – 75%; replacement of traditional cable TV – 75%.
Interestingly, only 27% of total respondents thought that 5G would have a big influence on their daily life.
In a finding that I find disturbing, 65% of respondents think 5G will have a positive impact on rural America. Even the biggest 5G proponents admit that 5G is going to be hard to justify in low-density areas. It’s not hard to understand this belief because I’ve seen numerous articles that make this claim. 79% think 5G will have a positive impact in cities.
When asked which companies would be leaders in 5G, the unsurprising responses include Verizon (43%), AT&T (36%), Apple (43%), Samsung (35%) and T-Mobile (20%). However, there were surprises on this list including Amazon (24%), Comcast (12%), Google (36%), Facebook (12%), Microsoft (34%) and Dish Networks (5%).
The public believes that 5G is going to bring price increases. 84% said they thought that 5G would result in higher cellular service prices. 77% said they thought 5G would lead to higher cable TV prices (this has me scratching my head). 81% said they thought 5G would lead to higher process for home broadband – but wouldn’t increased competition for home broadband bring lower prices? 86% expect the prices for smart phones to be higher.
Overall, the survey shows an unrealistic public perception about when we’ll see the benefits of 5G. It’s not hard to understand this misperception since there are untold articles making it sound like we’re on the verge of a 5G revolution. I’m guessing this might have been one of the motivations for T-Mobile to sponsor this survey since they are one of the most realistic voices in the industry talking about the 5G time line. It will be interesting to see what the public thinks in a few years after very little 5G has actually been implemented. But perhaps I’m just being overly skeptical since the big carriers like AT&T are now extolling their 4G LTE product as 5G – maybe the public will but it.