Citing a recent survey, 3 Denmark said few Danes have heard of 5G or know what it is. The survey found that almost 70 percent of respondents had either never heard of the new network standard or had come across the term but knew little about it. The mobile operator said 20 percent of people could not explain the difference between 3G, 4G and 5G, and 10 percent said it was hard to see any advantages to 5G.

The survey also found that Danes do listen to music, watch films and use other streaming services on their smartphones, all of which require a fast and stable internet connection. It said almost 70 percent of respondents stream from their phone while commuting to and from work or school. It even found that 36 percent use their handset for streaming while they are at work.

Network director Kim Christensen said the lack of knowledge was remarkable. He said Danish data consumption is rising by 50 percent annually, so 3 Denmark is working intensively at developing its 5G network.

Tarifica’s Take

The ignorance of Danes about 5G is noteworthy because Denmark, as an advanced economy with a highly developed mobile market, would be expected to have a tech-savvy customer base for telecommunications services. If the residents of this country evince such a lack of awareness of the nature and uses of 5G, one can well imagine that the level of ignorance is equal or greater in many other countries.

This situation poses a challenge, not only to 3 Denmark and to other Danish operators but also to MNOs in general. They are actively engaged in creating a new network standard in order to offer greater speed and efficiency, and they are rolling out the service even as most of their customers seemingly do not understand the nature of the product they are being sold. A small but significant minority even question whether 5G has any meaningful advantages.

In order to get the maximum utilization of their new network infrastructure, and in order to maximize the amounts they can charge subscribers for 5G services, operators need an informed customer base. Currently, Danes do use many applications that demand large amounts of data at high speed, so that is a good thing, but they still need to be aware of how important 5G is to their continued enjoyment of these things. Therefore, education of the public must be a high priority for MNOs right now. Traditional marketing is not enough; they really need to inform people in a systematic yet appealing way about what 5G is and why it is necessary.