A broad study by Ericsson ConsumerLab found strong support for assured connectivity services, with more than 40% of respondents wanting it and about half of those willing to pay extra to have it.
The study — based on a survey of about 43,000 smart phone owners in 27 markets, 34,000 of whom are active 5G customers — sought to understand how best to think about differentiated services.
The Ericsson study started with five questions providers should ponder when considering differentiated connectivity services.
They are:
- What is the upside of moving toward differentiated connectivity for service providers?
- Beyond average revenue per user increases, what findings support the launch of differentiated connectivity?
- What can be done to drive the uptake of differentiated connectivity, and is it a given that uptake will be smooth?
- How can differentiated connectivity help service providers compete in the market, and what are the key routes to market for it?
- Will service providers need to leverage differentiated connectivity to prepare for the next wave of apps and devices, or is it only needed for today’s use cases?
The satisfaction levels are impressive. The Ericsson study found that 5G users in markets with differentiated connectivity services have 46% higher brand perception and 18% higher satisfaction scores compared to users with the same service provider but without enhanced performance offerings.
The study found that differentiated connectivity services protect against chasing after the lowest pricing and provides helpful retention tools.
The Ericsson study also found that 60% of users are willing to pay for connectivity boosts, though the way in which consumers want to access those services differs — activation at critical moments; via subscription; through APIs, or other models. Forty percent of consumers studied were not interested in differentiated connectivity.
How subscribers experience their carriers is an increasingly important differentiation point as the technology itself becomes a commodity. Opensignal’s January 2026 Mobile Network Experience Report found that led T-Mobile for reliability, experience, consistent quality, and access to 5G.
