The 5G World: What People Care About

It’ll be years before most people have 5G phones and a super-fast network to connect them, but the future of mobile technology is shaping up right now. Behind the promises lie some big government decisions about what to prioritize, how to compete, and how fast to move. As citizens and consumers, whether they know it or not, people are being asked to weigh convenience against privacy, national competitiveness against national security, and speed against price. How they feel about those tradeoffs could shape national policies, and the competitive landscape of what is effectively a whole new internet. To gauge their views, a new worldwide POLITICO/Qualcomm global survey on 5G asked nearly 8,000 people in the US and 10 countries across Europe, Asia and South America what they were expecting, and what they worried about. Read on for the results, and why they could matter to decisionmakers