U.S. Professionals Do Not Yet Understand 5G, Survey Finds

Consumer or business surveys can be hard to interpret. Consider this bit of research on 5G benefits. 

Only 19 percent of US business professionals claim to understand the benefits of 5G, according to a survey commissioned by Ciena and conducted by research firm Dynata. 

41 percent of working professionals saying they only know a little bit about the benefits of 5G. Some 32 percent of working professionals stating they have heard of 5G, but don’t understand what it is, while eight  percent of working professionals say they never have heard of 5G

Today, the main benefit that US professionals associate with 5G is “faster access speeds,”  cited by 61 percent of respondents. By contrast, only six percent of respondents considered “reduced latency (lag)” to be a major benefit. 

Only 18 percent of respondents said that they consider “more reliable connectivity” to be a major benefit; and only 16 percent recognized “better wireless coverage” as a major benefit, the study suggests. 

One conclusion is that mobile operators need to educate the market on 5G benefits and back that up by consistent performance. 

But one might also reach other conclusions. The value of new technologies is hard to grasp when most consumers or workers have yet to experience them. The value of new technologies is likely to be misunderstood early in the deployment phase, when all features are not available, coverage or availability is spotty and when ecosystems are not yet established. 

All of that applies to U.S. 5G at the moment. 

The darker explanation for the survey results is that, in addition to having no experience with 5G, potential customers also are not seeing the promised benefits; or the benefits are seen, but are not yet clearly transformative. 

Some skeptics might argue those results are found because 5G "has no obvious benefit" and might not offer benefits.

One would expect quite different results in five years, when most users will have had experience with 5G; when the more-advanced features are readily available and when ecosystems have developed around 5G. 

In the near term, faster speed might not be so pronounced; latency advantages not perceptible and new use cases only early in development. That would be true for any major technology product.