5G phones will be extremely cheap – 5G plans will be expensive

Posted in Guides & Tips on January 20, 2020 by Stein Jürgen ‐ Download .

Most people fear that 5G phones will be way more expensive than 4G phones – but they won’t. 5G phones will be extremely cheap while 5G plans will be extremely expensive.

5G phones will be extremely cheap – mobile plans extremely expensive

Finally – 5G is coming – and it’s gonna be a blast with a lot of new online, digital possibilities.

Experts around the world say that 5G smartphones will be way more expensive than todays phones – but I’ve got good news for you – our analysis in “The History of the mobile phone and the future of mobile technology” say they won’t, not when 5G really starts kicking off.

Even though we have to see some major improvements on critical features on 5G phones, better battery life and antenna quality for instance, before they can really take advantage of 5G and all the services from the future network – 5G phones will not become more expensive than the premium models today.

We just have to wait for life changing new features based on 5G.

Services drive the phone sale – not the technology

When 2G arrived many years ago it was not 2G itself that drove the phone sale – it was text messaging- this was a completely new way to communicate with each other.

3G was itself not interesting – but the fact that we could be online with our phones was – and we got access to a new digital world through apps – that pushed the smartphone sale.

4G meant seamless music and video streaming – that was a new driver for the smartphone sale.

Everytime we got a new network technology the picture was the same: The first batch of phones were expensive but when new services arrived the network carriers started to heavily subsidise the phones making them extremely cheap.

5G services will make 5G phones cheap

The same thing will happen for 5G phones. In the beginning 5G phones will be expensive but when new services based on 5G starts to surface – location based multiplayer games, augmented and virtual reality services – then phone users will start craving for these new 5G phones – enter: the good old market mechanism.

As the customers start craving for new 5G services it will make sense for the carriers to subsidise the phones – the market is terminal driven and nothing moves customers as new exciting phones.

The carriers are simply forced to subsidise the phones to get the attention from the customers and this will mean 5G phones for less than one dollar or one euro.

Much higher price on 5G mobile plans

Instead we have to get used to more expensive mobile plans. Mobile plans and mobile broadband based on 5G will probably be 20-25 percent more expensive than the same products based on 4G. We saw this kind of price jump when 4G took over from 3G and I’ll expect the same scenario when we move from 4G to 5G.

The carriers need an income – they spend millions of dollars each year on building and optimizing their networks and they spend a lot of money on subsidising popular phones. Mobile plans and mobile broadband is where the money is for the carriers.

Are you excited about 5G?

To sum up: When we all start craving for new the 5G services the fight for the customers kicks in – this will mean extremely cheap 5G phones as the market i terminal driven – but it will at the same time mean that you have to pay way more for your mobile plan.

I’m looking forward to mindblowing online multi player games when 5G have settled in and I also expect totally new exciting ways of using augmented and virtual reality in my everyday life. I can’t wait for 5G to really take off.

Are you excited about 5G and 5G Phones? Maybe you already have a 5G phone? Are there any special 5G services you are looking forward to, that would make you buy a 5G phone and that you believe will revolutionize the way we use our phone?