NEW DELHI: 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) is the most desirable 5G use case amongst consumers globally, a study by telecom gear maker Nokia said on Wednesday.
The study, which was conducted by Park Associates, surveyed 3,000 people in UK, US, and South Korea to examine the consumer understanding and demand for 5G services across 6 different use cases, including autonomous vehicles, video surveillance and immersive technologies.
The study further indicated that there is an opportunity for mobile operators to compete with broadband providers by offering FWA to homes and businesses, with 75% of respondents citing FWA as the most appealing use cases, with 66% claiming they’ll switch to
5G FWA if it proves to be cost-efficient and offers better or the same performance as their existing broadband connection.
Additionally, mobile operators can leverage the opportunity to offer FWA as an alternative to traditional broadband service as 41% of respondents highlighted they only had the choice of a single broadband provider and resented the lack of choice.
Though the study was conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has driven the World to work from home, the study findings align with the consumer demand for better quality video calls as 90% of respondents noted ‘high-quality, uninterrupted video streams’ a ‘very valuable’ aspect of 5G.
Additionally, 66% of respondents rated video capture and streaming applications appealing and 69% rated video detection and alerting appealing.
Although the current familiarity with 5G remains relatively low, with only half of consumers claiming any level of familiarity. However, the report noted that familiarity with 5G increased with better awareness as 80 percent of respondents familiar with 5G found it appealing compared to 23% of those who are unfamiliar with this.
