In the UK, nearly half of mobile phone users are struggling to get a 4G connection and only one in seven plans to upgrade to 5G in a year, according to a new study highlighting customer perception issues from mobile operators .
According to uSwitch, a third of people have trouble connecting to 4G at least once a week, forcing them to rely on 3G's ever-aging aging. Almost two-thirds (60%) report having trouble connecting to 4G at home, highlighting the differences between indoor and outdoor coverage.
This despite Ofcom's figures that 66% of British people can access a 4G service from the four main operators.
British 5G adoption
All four mobile operators will have or launch 5G networks before the end of the year, but coverage will initially focus on large cities. According to forecasts, 28% of the country will have access to 5G by the end of 2019.
5G will offer faster speeds and greater capacity, while changes to core networks will also improve the quality of 4G services. However, the study suggests that 5G is unlikely to solve connectivity problems in the near future.
Only fourteen percent plan to move to 5G this year and only 22 percent will do so in the short term. In addition to coverage limitations, only 19% believe that 5G will improve connectivity and 30% think that 5G will be more expensive, although Vodafone and Three said they did not charge premiums.
The results show that mobile operators may find it difficult to communicate the benefits of 5G to customers and that much remains to be done to improve the situation in rural areas.
"A poor signal can sometimes be attributed to network congestion during peak periods, but often the capacity is simply not enough for the number of people who want to access a service that they have paid for," he said. Ernest Doku, uSwitch mobile phone expert.
"The arrival of the next generation of infrastructure should solve some of the problems currently facing 4G users, but it will not be an immediate solution, especially since fewer than one in seven plan to move to the next generation." 5G over the next year. .
"However, the industry cannot use the 5G launch as a red tape to cover the shortcomings of 4G." Providers must work with communities to improve connectivity, especially in rural areas, to prevent millions of people from being abandoned to technology two generations later.
"Unless networks improve their coverage in rural areas, the risk is that 5G will make the same mistakes as 4G and serve mainly cities at the expense of more rural areas of the country."