41% of people think 5G hype is justified, survey says

By Dan Oliver
published

But despite the majority of people believing 5G would be beneficial, one fifth still didn't know anything about 5G technology.

Ansys report image.
(Image credit: Ansys)

The majority of people are convinced that the hype surrounding 5G is legitimate, according to a large survey of 16,037 people, from the UK, US, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Sweden, Japan, China and India. 

The survey was conducted by Atomik Research and its team of MRS-certified researchers, on behalf of Ansys, a specialists in engineering simulation software, and was conducted online during March, 2020.

5G suffers 'similar uncertainty'

However, despite the majority believing that 5G would be beneficial, and was worth the hype, there was still a sizeable chunk of people - just over a fifth - that had no idea what 5G technology actually was.

“Similar uncertainty surrounded the transition from 3G to 4G,” said Dr. Prith Banerjee, chief technology officer at Ansys. “At that time, the general public and many experts could not have possibly predicted the impact it would have on our lives — from mobile HD video streaming to GPS-based ride-sharing and numerous work-from-anywhere cloud technologies.”

“For at-home-and-anywhere workers, the near-term big benefit of 5G will be enhanced network reliability.”

Ansys report.

The survey also found that only 34% of US respondents believe that 5G will have a positive impact on the economy, compared with 81% of Chinese respondents. And, 26% of Americans think that the 5G hype is warranted and will be a drastic improvement over 4G, compared with 77% of Chinese and 75% of Indian respondents. 

“For at-home-and-anywhere workers, the near-term big benefit of 5G will be enhanced network reliability,” the report said. “With connections no longer dependent on cables and Wi-Fi, workers will experience less productivity-killing interruptions. And, with greater available bandwidth, remote workers can better exploit video conferencing capabilities and networks can support more area users - without a slowdown in processing.”

As of January 2020 (according to Viavi), 5G networks exist in 378 cities, across 34 countries; however, continued rollout has been curtailed (in some regions) due to COVID-19. 

Dan Oliver
Dan Oliver

Dan is a British journalist with 20 years of experience in the design and tech sectors, producing content for the likes of Microsoft, Adobe, Dell and The Sunday Times. In 2012 he helped launch the world's number one design blog, Creative Bloq. Dan is now editor-in-chief at 5Gradar, where he oversees news, insight and reviews, providing an invaluable resource for anyone looking to stay up-to-date with the key issues facing 5G.