Apparently, a recent survey showed about half of all iPhone owners in the US think their Apple smartphones already have 5G capability. The survey suggests that the nature and availability of 5G devices and networks are still misunderstood by many. However, since Apple has not yet released an iPhone that supports 5G, this particular statistic is all the more worrying.
5G deployment is in progress, with the majority of coverage limited to the slower version that is closer to LTE speeds than the fastest variety known as mmWave. The reason for the slow rolling out of the fastest form is that it cannot penetrate walls, so full coverage will require a significantly larger amount of infrastructure to allow reasonable range. Currently, that means mmWave 5G is only available in a few cities. On the other hand, Sub-6 5G offers faster than LTE speeds and covers many more cities. While coverage is always improving, progress has been slowed by the pandemic and it will take a while before it has the degree of coverage that LTE currently enjoys.
What does it mean when 49-percent of iPhone owners located in the United States believe their phone has 5G already? Of course, it’s impossible to own a 5G iPhone, since Apple hasn’t made one yet. From all the statistics gathered in the survey conducted by Global Wireless Solutions (GWS), this is one of the strangest findings, as it makes iPhone owners look particularly out of touch with wireless technology. Although, nothing indicates any of the survey participants' phones were tested for 5G. This means the answers may have been just as far off base for Android owners. Since several Android smartphones support 5G, a comparison isn’t possible. Another finding suggested that younger city dwellers are most willing to pay for the advanced wireless speeds.
Why Is 5G So Confusing?
There does appear to be a general misunderstanding of 5G for many people. For example, 29-percent of those surveyed said they are uncertain whether their smartphone supports 5G. About three-quarters were either ‘very interested’ or ‘somewhat interested’ in 5G, but the same number don’t think any benefits will be experienced this year. 54-percent of those surveyed selected the most vague ‘Faster Data’ option, rather than the specific answers of ‘HD Video Calling/Conferencing,’ ‘Improved Video Streaming,’ or ‘Better Gaming.’ The more general choice covers all of those possibilities, so perhaps that is the most savvy answer, but one would expect the specific use cases would score higher than 16-percent. Again, it may indicate a general feeling of 5G being a future technology that isn’t really relevant yet.
The variety of 5G signals and the implementation options available to carriers make it difficult to understand. Some 5G hardware works in conjunction with existing 4G equipment and some is entirely new. Even for those familiar with tech, it can get complicated in a hurry. It doesn’t help that AT&T shows a 5GE symbol in some areas which stands for 5G Evolution and is actually an advanced LTE service that doesn’t reach 5G speeds. Some devices support the full range of 5G frequencies, while others, like Google’s Pixel 4a (5G) have models that are limited to the slower Sub-6 speeds.
For the iPhone, no current models support 5G. However, rumors suggest that the first 5G model will be the iPhone 12 that's expected to be announced at Apple’s ‘Hi, Speed’ Event on October 13, 2020. This survey was conducted from June 16th to July 3rd, 2020, so many iPhone users over-estimated their phone’s wireless capabilities. The GWS survey did cover 5,000 participants, so it was a fairly sizable sample. However, as with any poll or survey, unless reviewing the raw data, there is a degree of trust required that the weighting makes sense and that the way questions were worded and ordered doesn’t create unintentional skewing of the results. With election polls taking place often, it’s important to make note that all surveys have these potential flaws and the value is in taking a broad view, rather than focusing on specifics. The takeaway from this survey is that many consumers, iPhone owners or otherwise, do not yet quite understand 5G wireless capabilities and availability.
Source: Global Wireless Solutions