• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, January 3, 2019

Consumers are aware that 5G speeds are coming and have high expectations for what 5G will deliver to them.

The more consumers know about 5G, the more they appreciate the coming benefits, although some expect it will be difficult to adopt.

These are among the findings in a study comprising a survey of 5,000 consumers with access to internet-enabled devices conducted by HarrisX for T-Mobile.

More than half (57%) of consumers are aware of 5G, which is higher than awareness of the Internet of Things (29%), machine learning (26%) or blockchain (19%). Most (83%) consumers also expect that 5G will be better than the current 4G in use on phones now.

The majority (55%) of consumers believe that 5G will enable the development of new technologies, in addition to improving existing technologies and more than half (51%) think 5G will create job opportunities.

One of the attributes of 5G is its blinding speeds, as in download-a-movie-in-few-seconds fast -- a quality consumers seem to appreciate. Most (92%) consumers find download and upload speeds of 5G to be appealing, with 63% of those finding it very appealing.

Higher quality video streaming by 5G is appealing to 85% of consumers and higher quality voice and video calls is appealing to 89%. Other features consumers find appealing are less lag time (90%), more reliable mobile connections (93%) and the enabling of a great number of connected devices (82%).

Nearly a third (30%) of consumers expect it will be difficult for consumers to adopt 5G technology.

There also are expectations around pricing. The majority (64%) expect that 5G will increase the pricing for home internet services, 56% for cable service and 72% for wireless services.

Most (79%) consumers expect that 5G will increase the cost of smartphones, which are expected to hit the market later this year.