Noting from the start that Covid-19 has affected everyone around the world leading to living in unprecedented times, the eighteenth issue of Ericsson Mobility Report has revealed that none the less service providers continue to switch on 5G and users drove a surge in streaming over mobile platforms.
The quantitative study looked at 11,500 consumers, equating to 1,000 across each of 11 countries, except for the US, representing 700 million users in 11 countries. The target group was smartphone users aged 15–69 years old using the internet.
Fundamentally, while the lockdowns and social distancing and keeping millions at home has placed significant demands on mobile infrastructure and 83% of respondents said that ICT networks helped them a lot to cope with the lockdown. Across the 11 surveyed markets, 81% of consumers have increased their usage of existing online services and a majority increased usage of streaming video. As many as 58% of the survey said that they had increased their usage of streaming full-length video and 57% had increased streaming short videos such as those from YouTube.
One of the concerns of many millions more using mobile networks during lockdown was reduced quality of video experiences, and the survey showed that the video streaming experience is most important to Generation X and Millennials. By and large, the survey found that the perception of video streaming experiences was generally satisfactory. And this general satisfaction came despite some services reducing video streaming quality to manage capacity demands. Indeed, 29% of the survey said that such a course of action was very important and 56% somewhat important.
In terms of future trends for mobile video, just 17% said that they were now Signing up for more entertainment options, such as streaming video subscriptions.
In addition the Ericsson Mobility Report showed how the crisis has also built a foundation for the potential role that 5G could play in enriching services and making the management of such a crisis much easier. A total of 44% strongly agree that society could have benefitted hugely from 5G. And although 57% said that they would save money for financial security, a third still plan to invest in 5G and improved broadband at home to better prepare for the next wave of the crisis. Ericsson expects the global number of 5G subscriptions to top 190 million by the end of 2020 and 2.8 billion by the end of 2025.
Fundamentally, while the lockdowns and social distancing and keeping millions at home has placed significant demands on mobile infrastructure and 83% of respondents said that ICT networks helped them a lot to cope with the lockdown. Across the 11 surveyed markets, 81% of consumers have increased their usage of existing online services and a majority increased usage of streaming video. As many as 58% of the survey said that they had increased their usage of streaming full-length video and 57% had increased streaming short videos such as those from YouTube.
One of the concerns of many millions more using mobile networks during lockdown was reduced quality of video experiences, and the survey showed that the video streaming experience is most important to Generation X and Millennials. By and large, the survey found that the perception of video streaming experiences was generally satisfactory. And this general satisfaction came despite some services reducing video streaming quality to manage capacity demands. Indeed, 29% of the survey said that such a course of action was very important and 56% somewhat important.
In terms of future trends for mobile video, just 17% said that they were now Signing up for more entertainment options, such as streaming video subscriptions.
In addition the Ericsson Mobility Report showed how the crisis has also built a foundation for the potential role that 5G could play in enriching services and making the management of such a crisis much easier. A total of 44% strongly agree that society could have benefitted hugely from 5G. And although 57% said that they would save money for financial security, a third still plan to invest in 5G and improved broadband at home to better prepare for the next wave of the crisis. Ericsson expects the global number of 5G subscriptions to top 190 million by the end of 2020 and 2.8 billion by the end of 2025.
