US consumers apparently not that bothered about 5G

As 5G is all the US telcos can talk about right now, you would be forgiven for assuming consumers are just as excited, but it appears the feelings are little more than ‘meh’.

According to new research from Repeater Store, consumers just aren’t that bothered by the upcoming wireless revolution. In fact, most aren’t even aware of the work which is being done across the country.

59% of the respondents to the survey didn’t know that 5G is around the corner, though T-Mobile US subscribers were the most clued up which is perhaps unsurprising considering the eccentric narcissist currently in-charge. In terms of understanding the benefits, 28.1% said they were not clear at all, while 27.5% said they were somewhat clear and 23.2% said they sort of understood the added value. In terms of excitement, 18.5% couldn’t care less and 19.6% aren’t really excited. 32% are in the ‘meh’ camp, while the rest are more pleased with the upgrades.

While there are clear benefits for the industry and apparent excitement for vendors, almost the complete opposite can be said for consumers. To date, the limited communications on 5G have focused on increased speed on mobile devices, though most of the time, a 4G connection is more than sufficient to watch videos, play games or check your bank balance. Perhaps in the eyes of the consumer, the telcos are trying to fix a problem which doesn’t exist.

Consumers do not know about the stress being placed on networks, nor are they likely care that much either. Telcos can promote the long-term benefit of 5G due to the increased efficiency of data delivery, but as long as the experience is good enough today, few consumers will actually care about these messages. Strain on the network is the telcos problem not the consumers, they don’t pay to be concerned about the piping.

Perhaps the issue is the telcos haven’t been discussing the most relevant usecases enough. The fixed wireless access usecase is certainly an interesting one, and an area which can be communicated to the consumers as an immediate benefit of 5G. According to Repeater Store, although only 17% of consumers would sign up to a 5G FWA subscription today, 75% would be open to the idea. This of course will be determined by the experience, and so far, there is still a lot of work to do.

The majority of survey respondents stated 4G signal in their homes was nothing more than average right now. 40.8% of AT&T subscribers described their experience as excellent, while it was 49.7% for Verizon, 42.3% for T-Mobile and 30.2% for Sprint. These are the customers which are perfect to sell 5G FWA to, though for the offering to be a genuine success, the number of 4G satisfied customers will have to be higher. Part of the buying decision for 5G FWA will be based on the experience of 4G signal in customer homes; it’s not a bad start, but certainly more work needs to be done.

One of two conclusions can be taken from this research. Either, the telcos need to do a better job of telling consumers about the benefits of 5G, or, the consumers simply aren’t bothered by what the telcos have been saying so far. If the former is correct, expect more marketing dollars to be spent, but if it is the latter, the industry will have to more away from the ‘faster is better’ approach to advertising which has dominated for years.

We suspect it is a bit of both. In the rush to bring services to market, US telcos might not have had the time to tell the full story about 5G. This is something which can be developed over time. Another area worth considering is whether we need faster? We are struggling to think of many cases when a stable 4G connection is not good enough for content to work effectively on devices, raising another question; if 4G is fast enough right now, why do we need better?

There are other benefits to 5G, FWA is an excellent example, especially in the US. Though it does appear the telcos just need to get better at explaining the benefits and potential usecases, instead of lazily falling back into the same routine of ‘our network is faster than everyone else’s’.