Since the first commercial 5G services were switched on in the first half of last year, many more 5G networks have gone live throughout the world. According to the tracking by research house , by the end of Q2 this year over 70 mobile operators across more than 40 countries have launched 5G, bringing fast mobile or fixed wireless broadband connectivity to millions of consumers. Huawei forecasts that 5G is on track to reach mass market adoption faster than any previous mobile generation with close to 2 billion subscribers by the end of 2024. Meanwhile, the mobile industry has also started embracing the advanced phase of 5G, in particular the standalone mode, which will help operators realize 5G’s potential of billions of additional value through serving industrial and other business use cases. Such a background makes it a good time to take stock of 5G’s performance in its first year and start looking ahead towards what should be expected, and what should be avoided, in the years to come. To this end, Huawei has recently conducted an industry survey to gauge the sentiment towards 5G so far, and to gather the industry’s views on the new technology’s successes and challenges. The enthusiastic response of the industry is encouraging. By the time the survey was closed in mid-July, a total of 344 participants had responded to the survey and shared their views on a range of questions related to 5G Technologies, 5G Security, and 5G Expectations. The three biggest groups of companies represented in the survey are vendors and system integrators, each at 24%, followed by mobile network operators (MNOs) or mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), at 21%. In terms of the participants’ job functions, 22% of the total respondents were C-level executives and VPs, including those heading their organizations’ IT departments. This was followed by mid-level management (19%), engineers and developers (18%), and sales and marketing personnel (17%). The survey has attracted plenty of Huawei veterans. Over a quarter of all respondents (26%) had been in the telecoms industry for more than 25 years, and just under a quarter (23%) had been in the trade between 20 and 25 years. Geographically, the largest proportion of respondents are based in Europe (40%), followed by the group from North America and Asia Pacific, each at 21%. Incidentally, these three groups combined also represent the majority of the markets where 5G has gone live. The demographics of the respondents showed that the large majority of the respondents have an intimate understanding of the technologies, a close relationship with the market and customers, and a rich experience in the telecoms industry. The responses to the survey can therefore be read with a high level of confidence as representing the true attitude of the telecoms industry towards 5G. The survey opened by asking the participants to rate the overall performance of 5G so far against their expectations. The good news is 41% of all respondents felt that 5G has either met or exceeded their expectations. About a third of respondents, primarily from the markets where 5G is yet to launch, understandably said they could not tell. The less good news is that about a quarter (24%) of survey participants felt underwhelmed by 5G’s performance. How would you describe 5G’s overall performance since the first commercial services went live in 2019? 5G’s Overall Performance Better than I expected
11% Meeting my expectations............................................
30% Less impressive than I expected ................................................................
24% Can’t tell yet ......................................................................
31% Other.....................................................................................
4% The rationale behind the mixed responses became clearer when the participants responded to questions on their greatest expectations for 5G and what leading challenges they see 5G facing. Three quarters (74%) of the respondents expected to see 5G enable new use cases to generate additional value, for example high-quality video experience, or industrial automation. Fifty-six percent saw 5G delivering stronger network customization capability for operators to meet new and unique customer demands, for example end-to-end network slicing, or deployment of private networks. When it comes to challenges
5G is likely to face, over half (54%) of all the respondents believed the failure to deliver on 5G’s high promises would be the biggest worry. There is a high degree of overlap between those choosing this option and those who felt 5G has been less impressive than expected. Which is understandable, considering, for example, consumers have not experienced anything close to “gigabit per second” speed. What the industry should pay heed to is that the gap between promises and what 5G actually delivers should not grow any wider, to further thwart customers’ enthusiasm for 5G. The second biggest challenge for 5G, according to participants in the survey, would be the high cost of deploying and operating 5G networks. Overall, the industry professionals who answered the survey were largely happy with what 5G has achieved in its first year of commercial operation, and confident in its prospect of success, but not without reservation, especially the concern over how well 5G will be able to deliver on its high promises to consumers and business users
