Consumers willing to pay a premium for 5G

Despite concerns surrounding the commercial proposition of 5G technology, smartphone users are willing to pay an average of a 20% premium for 5G services, according to Ericsson.

The company’s latest ConsumerLab report on the 5G consumer potential finds that half of the early adopters would be willing to pay as much as 32% more for 5G.

But consumers’ willingness to pay a premium for 5G is reliant on operators introducing new use cases and payment models and providing a consistently high uplink and downlink speed, the report finds.

Meanwhile, 5G is expected to drive usage behaviors that also promise to increase revenues. The study finds that 5G is expected to significantly increase video consumption, both by enabling streaming in higher resolutions and through the increased use of augmented reality, virtual reality, and other new formats.

Ericsson predicts that one in five smartphone users’ data usage could reach more than 200GB per month over 5G devices by 2025.

Consumers also expect that 5G will bring additional benefits such as reducing network congestion in dense urban areas and introducing more home broadband choices.

Based on the research, Ericsson ConsumerLab has drawn up a consumer roadmap of 5G use cases involving 31 different applications and services.

These applications are divided into six categories – entertainment and media; enhanced mobile broadband; gaming and AR/VR applications; smart home and fixed wireless access; automotive and transportation; and shopping and immersive communications.

“Trough our research, we have busted four myths about consumers’ views on 5G and answered questions such as whether 5G features will require new types of devices, or whether smartphones will be the silver bullet for 5G,” Ericsson Research head of ConsumerLab Jasmeet Singh Sethi said.

“Consumers clearly state that they think smartphones are unlikely to be the sole solution for 5G.”