5G customers are highly satisfied but adoption remains slow

Dylan Crismale - Digital Content Editor

Last updated 11 December 2025

New research from RMIT University has found that 5G has not had quite the revolutionary impact on consumers that was once expected.

The paper titled 5G and Consumer Adoption: The Quiet Revolution is based on data from a nationally representative survey of over 2,000 people.

The report found that while 5G users are largely satisfied with their experience of 5G services there's a lack of consumer demand to adopt the technology.

Lead author Associate Professor James Meese said “What we’re seeing is 5G by default, not 5G by demand."

3G introduced video calling and multimedia messaging, and 4G enabled on-the-go streaming. 5G has enabled much faster mobile speeds but has failed to deliver a real step-change.

The researchers identified this so-called "quiet revolution" with 5G arriving through routine upgrades rather than big consumer shifts.

One of the key findings was that the main reason consumers have adopted 5G has been through upgrading their phone services.

Many telcos offer 5G with their mobile plans already but it only becomes active with a 5G-enabled device. Consumers upgrading to the latest handsets may find they have 5G at no extra cost.

The two most popular reasons for upgrading services were "No reason, I just upgraded when my plan changed" (37%) and "Faster speeds" (36%).

Regardless of their reason for upgrading to 5G, consumers are broadly very satisfied with the experience. 5G call quality, speed, coverage and video calls scored above 85% on all measures.

Meese told WhistleOut, "There was an expectation that 5G was going to mean something more for consumers. We're not quite sure what that is, but I think what's really telling is 5 years on, there hasn't really been a big transformation; it's kind of business as usual – that's not to say consumers aren't satisfied.

"It's not to say they're not seeing speed increases, but there hasn't been a real kind of transformative moment, I think, in the same way that you'd say for earlier generations."

While for some 5G home internet has presented a convenient alternative to the NBN, the report found that 5G is unlikely to properly challenge the NBN.

The report found that 62% of 5G home internet users were previous NBN customers. 64% of these former NBN users reported that they thought their internet service was "better than before".

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With NBN speed increases for HFC and FTTP customers introducing new 500Mbps speed plans for around $85 per month, ongoing uncapped 5G home internet plans no longer represent the same value.

Previously, these uncapped plans allowed customers to potentially get up to 1Gbps speeds for much less than an NBN 1000 plan (although realisitcally typical evening speeds are reported as between 200-300Mbps).

The paper also looked at 5G in terms of 5G mobile hotspotting, only 6% of consumers reported using it often, with 55% using it occasionally, and the remainder responding never or not sure (39%). Those using their mobile 5G connection occasionally were usually utilising it in the case of a failure with their main internet service.

One key benefit of 5G home internet that the researchers found still resonated with consumers was its ease of setup.

Your exact NBN setup depends on your connection type and may involve configuring a modem, whereas 5G home internet is as simple as activating the SIM that comes with your modem, mich like a mobile phone.

Meese told WhistleOut, "The kind of idea of literally unboxing and plugging in people were just saying was miles different to their experience with routers. So that might remain one of the few unique differences between the two technologies in terms of consumer experience."

Dylan Crismale

Digital Content Editor

Dylan Crismale is a Digital Content Editor at WhistleOut, has been writing for almost a decade across a variety of Australian publications. He previously worked as a writer at Finder covering energy, internet and mobile plans. Dylan is passionate about finding the best deals to save people money and educating people about tech. When he's not sat at his desk Dylan loves working out, bingeing TV and hanging out with friends.

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