A recent global Gartner survey (www.gartner.com) revealed that 75% of end-user organizations would be willing to pay more for 5G mobile capabilities. Only 24% of the survey's respondents would be unwilling to pay more for 5G than for 4G. 

"Those in the telecom industry are more likely to be prepared to pay more than those in other industries," said Sylvain Fabre, research director at Gartner. "End-user organizations in the manufacturing, services and government sectors, for example, are less likely to be willing to pay a premium for 5G than telecom companies, which are willing to pay a 5G premium for their internal use.”

In addition to offering better prices for industries in which users are less convinced of the business benefits of 5G, communications service providers (CSPs) must create value propositions that entice customers to start 5G migration projects sooner. 

Although most of the respondents think their organizations would be prepared to pay more for 5G, few (8%) expect 5G to deliver cost savings or increase revenues. 5G is seen principally as a network evolution (59%), and only secondarily as an enabler of digital business (37 %). The survey also found that respondents from the telecom sector are less persuaded than those in other industries that 5G will be a revenue enhancer.

"They tend to see 5G migration as a matter of gradual and inevitable infrastructural change, rather than as an opportunity to generate new revenue," said Fabre.