5G has been heavily hyped by the mobile industry for several years, and the technology also appears to be driving some consumers to upgrade faster to take advantage of the faster speeds and other promised improvements. But now the initial sheen appears to have dulled, he reports Financial Times.
Interest in 5G among consumers has waned and mobile operators have started to worry about whether enough people will upgrade and make the $1 billion investment in new infrastructure pay off.
According to William Hare, an analyst at Omdia, one problem for operators is that mobile phone manufacturers are not innovating as much today as they did a decade ago. The faster transfer speeds simply aren’t enough if nothing else is dramatically improved.
The reduced interest in 5G is also being felt in Southeast Asia, where operators have been quicker to upgrade their networks. Consumers now care more about battery life and camera quality, Canalys analyst Chiew Le Xuan said. He believes 4g is simply fast enough for most people and that 5g has no practical added value.
