November 6, 2024 – In the most recent ConsumerLab study carried out by Ericsson, it was revealed that user satisfaction at major events in 2024 has improved greatly owing to 5G networks. It is reported that 5G users were 20% more satisfied during the events compared to 4G users. From global sporting events taking place in Paris to the Eras concerts held by Taylor Swift, two-thirds of the users who used 5G declared their satisfaction with the service.
The study also examines which factors contribute most to user experience, concluding that connectivity quality and app performance have are more significant than mere speed of the network.
Jasmeet Sethi, Head of ConsumerLab at Ericsson, explained,
“This study clearly shows that the enhanced experiences 5G provides are driving greater satisfaction. While network speed is important, it’s not the most important factor—our findings show that user satisfaction is driven more by the consistency and quality of app performance.”
This indicates that there is a segment of users willing to pay an extra cost for a smooth guaranteed service during the peak demand periods with the average attendee prepared to spend about 15 % more for such an encounter. This means that there is an opportunity for operators who are able to deliver high quality connectivity to earn extra income.
A striking example drawn from the research is the Eras Tour of Taylor Swift during which users created and shared 5.4 terabytes of data per night on an average—comparable to posting 1.7 million pictures on social networks. In peak traffic conditions, Ericsson’s data indicated highest levels of data upload while 5G connectivity was pivotal in supporting the surge of traffic in visual data.
Anne Flore Roger, Technical Director, Mobile Network at Orange, noted the importance of proactive 5G deployment at this year’s major sporting event in Paris:
“To accommodate the anticipated 11 million attendees arriving in the city, we deployed numerous temporary mobile sites powered by 5G, which handled 25% of the total traffic—a remarkable figure. Key hot spots were also critical, with just six venues managing 50% of the total load. The opening ceremony alone saw traffic surge to three times the volume of a typical busy day, with 5G supporting half of that demand. It’s clear that without 5G, we could not have met the connectivity needs of users at this scale.”
Operators employed ingenious strategies in increasing capacity such as 5G mid-band TDD spectrum and Massive MIMO technology. According to Ericsson’s technology paper, these technologies achieved about six-fold improvement in data throughput of 5G over 4G in standard conditions.
Additionally, Tanja Richter, Managing Director of Technology & Network Director at Vodafone Germany, explained, “Visitors share their impressions with high-resolution videos, stories, and reels on social media to share their experience with friends and the whole world. As this keeps the mobile network really busy, we take such major events into account in our network planning and in many cases activate additional LTE and 5G antennas on site. This ensures that we can process the huge amounts of data simultaneously and reliably, even when thousands of users are on the network at the same time.”
The findings above demonstrate that the enhanced connection quality brought about by 5G can positively affect the experiences of the users during such events in the future which in turn will help in enhancing customer satisfaction and developing new avenues for growth for the operators.
Source: https://www.ericsson.com/en/press-releases/3/2024/consumerlab-5g-elevates-connectivity-experiences
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