5G adoption to boost video content streaming, gaming, social messaging the most, says Ookla

Network intelligence and connectivity insights provider Ookla said some 89% of urban and rural smart phone users who participated in their survey said they would upgrade their connections to 5G.

Among these, 48% of respondents said they plan to upgrade to 5G as soon as the services were available in their area, even if it required switching service providers. Some 20% of the respondents said they would wait for their service providers to upgrade to the 5G network and 14% of respondents intend to avail the services after upgrading to a 5G enabled handset.

Those who aren’t sure about the new technology likely wait to see how attractive it would be once others start using it. Only 2% stated that they don’t intend to upgrade to 5G, reported Ookla.

Ookla’s survey also revealed that if mobile internet connections were better, 70% of respondents would increase their use of video streaming, while 68% stated they would boost their mobile gaming. Operators acquired a total of 44,960 MHz of spectrum in the 26 GHz spectrum band (mmWave), which due to its high throughput, is particularly useful for streaming and gaming, the survey noted.

Sylwia Kechiche, Principal Analyst, Enterprise at Ookla said, “While mobile users in India were among the most data-intensive users in the world, India’s 4G/LTE networks have become a bottleneck for demand. The promise of 5G is that it will unlock a world of possibilities beyond just a faster network connection.”