Research from services provider Amdocs has revealed that over one-third of UK consumers plan on buying a 5G smartphone in 2020.
The study of 1000 UK consumers showed that demand for 5G devices is widespread and awareness has increased since the deployment of 5G networks last year.
The research also found that:
Only five per cent of the UK public has not heard of 5G
55 per cent of UK consumers claim to know what 5G is, but only have a basic understanding of its benefits
40 per cent of the UK public claim to have an understanding of 5G’s technical benefits, such as gigabit-speed, low-latency
The study indicates that 5G marketing from Communication Service Providers (CPS) is having an impact on consumers with only 30 per cent of respondents claiming they have no intention to buy a 5G smartphone at all.
When asked which services they are interested in utilising a 5G handset for, customers selected internet browsing (81 per cent), streaming services (74 per cent) and connected home devices (32 per cent). VR and AR (16 per cent) and cloud gaming (27 per cent) ranked low on the list.
Amdocs CTO Angela Logothetis said: “Consumers’ first experience of 5G will be a faster, more responsive and consistent experience for the types of things we do today – internet access, streaming video, accessing and storing photos in the cloud.
“We will see service providers start to bundle and monetise these popular applications and content as part of 5G. The more futuristic services – driverless cars, VR and AR technology – will take time – although we are seeing interest in early capabilities – like augmented reality street maps.
“There is definitely an opportunity for new killer 5G use cases to be developed to drive demand for 5G.”
