A majority of Taiwanese are not inclined to switch to 5G service within the next six months, as most of them are waiting for the cost to drop, an online poll released on Thursday by 1111 Job Bank (111人力銀行) showed.
The nation’s three major telecoms have launched 5G services over the past two months.
The average cost of a monthly data plan is NT$1,399, almost twice the average NT$703 most consumers are prepared to pay, the poll found.
The survey found that 52.8 percent of respondents are not considering applying for 5G service in the near future, with 31 percent of them naming cost as the main deterrent.
People are also not motivated to switch to 5G service, because they think 4G is adequate for their personal use (24.9 percent), they are concerned that 5G base stations might not have enough coverage (21 percent) and the devices they own do not support 5G (18.8 percent), the poll found.
Of the respondents who want to switch to 5G service, 64 percent said they would use it for smart home technology, 61.7 percent to watch online content and 53 percent for work, the survey found.
“While 4G brought significant changes for consumers, we are talking about industrial applications for 5G, especially in the manufacturing sector,” Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (FET, 遠傳電信) vice president Eric Li (李明憲) said.
Nearly 100 companies, more than half of which are in the manufacturing sector, are collaborating with FET on 5G, as the technology can be used to improve the manufacturing process, enhance supply chain management and help create a safer workplace, Li said.
5G is poised to become a game changer in people’s lives, 1111 Job bank spokesperson Vivi Hwang (黃若薇) said.
“5G technology’s characteristics of wider bandwidth, 1 millisecond latency and its ability to accommodate more devices per unit area than 4G will change how people work and live,” she said.
Hwang said that since the beginning of last month, the number of 5G-related job vacancies on the 1111 site has grown by about 20 percent, while searches for “5G” on the site have increased by 30 percent.
The survey, conducted from Aug. 1 to 14, collected 1,568 valid responses. It has a margin of error of 2.48 percentage points and a confidence level of 95 percent.
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