Perhaps nowadays it is hard to imagine a home without at least one mobile phone in it. In 2021, almost 98 percent of German households owned a mobile phone, compared to around 30 percent in 2000. Smartphone sales generated 10.9 billion euros in revenue in 2021, a slight decrease on the year before. With smartphone user numbers only growing in recent years, the topic of 5G is attracting more and more attention, with mobile communication providers eager to pounce and recruit new customers (or keep existing ones for longer) by being able to offer them more. 5G is a cellular network system for mobile broadband connection with promises of faster connection speed. This is increasingly relevant, as the volume of data exchanged between devices only increases. Remote working amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and general reliance on mobile communication services have additionally underlined the necessity of 5G implementation, though it is taking time. Germany’s leading telecommunication providers have all participated in a 5G auction. As for German consumers, 35 percent were willing to pay between 10 to 20 euros extra monthly for a 5G mobile contract.
