Survey showcases the growing impact and benefits of 5G
Ninety-nine percent of those polled predict end-users are going to benefit from 5G within the next five years
In a new survey from Molex, more than half of those surveyed expect to deliver substantial end-user benefits within two to five years, while 47% reported that users already are seeing value or will within one year.
Only 25% of those polled believe it is delivering something substantial today, but more than half said consumers in Japan and Korea already recognise substantial benefit from 5G. China also continues to gain traction with more than half of survey respondents indicating that consumers benefit currently or are expected to benefit within one year.
According to the survey, expectations for the U.S. are that it will take two-to-five years (75%) for consumers to fully realize significant advantages nationwide.
This may be due to deployment delays, where over 50% of those surveyed reported 5G deployment interruptions caused by the impact of COVID-19, and more than a third reported delays to future roadmaps.
One hundred percent of respondents report issues at least one general issue with 5G deployment. The top-three challenges are spectrum issues (41%), lack of consumer use cases (31%) and regulations (30%). However, the survey also showed that 92% still expect to achieve their 5G business goals within five years.
When asked to identify the most important technology or industry changes that will enable network operators to achieve their business goals, 41% of respondents cited reduced costs of 5G infrastructure and network equipment. They also listed innovation in enabling technologies, including semiconductors and sensors (31%), availability of new types of devices that require connectivity (26%), as well as stable and consistent government regulations (22%).
Only three in five survey participants reported the need for a "killer app" or transformative use case to drive 5G adoption and significant new business revenues. Rural home access topped the list of primary uses cases for fixed wireless access at 53%. Additionally, autonomous driving, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications and vehicle telematics ranked highest on the list of primary use cases for the automotive industry. Remote patient monitoring, medical wearables and remote surgery were identified as "killer apps" for the medical market.
The research polled more than 200 decision makers for telecom carriers to explore the ‘state of 5G’ and the transformational opportunities it presents.
"The 5G market is nearing an inflection point as carriers report steady progress despite continued challenges," said Aldo Lopez, president, Datacom Solutions, Molex. "Fully realizing 5G's potential will transform multiple industries and markets. It is a long game that requires collaboration across an entire ecosystem of hardware, software and connectivity companies to innovate to these new mobile network standards, which in turn, will accelerate user adoption."