The first year that a number of significant European events aligned with a targeted rollout of 5G infrastructure by operators in response to the surge in mobile traffic needs was 2024. These events—such as the European Football Championship, the world championship in Paris, and Taylor Swift’s Eras concerts—offered a practical test of 5G’s ability to deliver improved connectivity in the most difficult traffic situations.
When compared to 4G at the same places, 5G networks provide a noticeably better user experience, according to network performance data from these events. A sample of consumers representing the 14 million fans who attended these events were asked about their past expectations and experiences by Ericsson ConsumerLab. At the same locations, 5G had 20% more satisfied customers than 4G, with two out of three 5G users saying their expectations for connectivity were met or surpassed.
Jasmeet Sethi, Head of ConsumerLab at Ericsson, said: “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. As previous ConsumerLab studies have already shown, poor experience can have a lasting impact on customer loyalty, and these results underline that users are willing to pay more for guaranteed service quality. This means that, with 5G standalone, operators have a significant opportunity to meet rising user expectations and capitalize on premium services for consumers seeking assured quality of experience.”
Customers are prepared to spend more for assured connectivity and app experience at events, according to the report. Users continued to report problems with network dropouts and inconsistent app experiences during periods of high network traffic and congestion, which the results indicate has ten times more of an influence on their perception than network speeds. Customers stated that in order to enhance their experience during events, they were willing to pay for continuous, guaranteed connectivity. Attendees are willing to spend an additional 15% to enhance their connectivity and app experience if they have the choice to receive this as part of their event ticket. By enabling them to reserve a portion of their network to guarantee a high-quality experience for particular consumers or apps, 5G standalone would enable operators to best satisfy this requirement.
Jenny Lindqvist, Head of Market Area Europe and Latin America, said: “5G is already having a transformative impact on consumers at major events, allowing for more users to live stream or share their experiences. Looking ahead, differentiated connectivity will allow operators to cater for individual user needs and expectations, for instance, through guaranteed premium connectivity. This will lead to even higher customer satisfaction and create new revenue opportunities for the operators.”
At these events, 5G’s performance boost enabled operators to handle an increase in upload traffic brought on by content sharing and real-time live streaming. Attendees at Taylor Swift concerts used an average of 5.4 TB of data per night, which is the same as posting more than 1.7 million photos to social media, downloading 94,000 hours of music, or playing the artist’s whole discography more than 4,500 times. Uplink data traffic in central Paris rose by 20% every day during the international athletic event, and it tripled during the opening ceremony. There would have been major connectivity issues and overwhelmed networks if 4G had been the only technology used to handle this upload traffic.
Tanja Richter, Managing Director Technology & Network Director at Vodafone Germany, said: “Mobile phones are in constant use at concerts, festivals, and sporting events. 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.”
Anne Flore Roger, Technical Director, Mobile Network at Orange, said: “Customer experience is at the heart of our strategy. During this year’s global sporting event in Paris, we witnessed unprecedented traffic levels. 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.”
Ericsson created a supplementary technology document that explores the technology behind the connectivity improvements observed at these major events, in addition to the ConsumerLab study. In order to manage anticipated traffic spikes and avoid network outages, operators started planning more than a year in advance, as this study demonstrates. 5G capacity expansions were concentrated on using Massive MIMO (multiple-input, multiple-output) technology in conjunction with 5G mid-band TDD spectrum. This strategy greatly increased capacity and improved experiences for both 4G and 5G users, proving to be economical and successful. For instance, mid-band 5G TDD provided a 3.5-fold increase in energy efficiency per gigabyte when compared to 4G, while average throughputs for 5G users at the international athletic event in Paris were up to six times greater than 4G under normal conditions and four times higher during peak moments.
Also read: Viksit Workforce for a Viksit Bharat
Do Follow: CIO News LinkedIn Account | CIO News Facebook | CIO News Youtube | CIO News Twitter
About us:
CIO News is the premier platform dedicated to delivering the latest news, updates, and insights from the CIO industry. As a trusted source in the technology and IT sector, we provide a comprehensive resource for executives and professionals seeking to stay informed and ahead of the curve. With a focus on cutting-edge developments and trends, CIO News serves as your go-to destination for staying abreast of the rapidly evolving landscape of technology and IT. Founded in June 2020, CIO News has rapidly evolved with ambitious growth plans to expand globally, targeting markets in the Middle East & Africa, ASEAN, USA, and the UK.
