A new Deloitte study, “Connectivity and Mobile Trends Survey,” found that current U.S. households own “an average of 11 connected devices, including seven with screens to view content.” Deloitte vice-chair/U.S. telecom and media and entertainment leader Kevin Westcott declared that, after AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon roll out 5G, we’ll see “a significant increase in connected devices.” The study further found that 67 percent of consumers plan to upgrade to 5G-compatible smartphones when they become available.

Variety reports that Westcott said, “we’re going to see an explosion of connected devices in the home — and in your car and on your body.” The study, which relied on research firm Ipsos to survey 2,003 U.S. consumers 14 and older, also found, “62 percent of consumers said they will likely replace their home Internet with 5G service if it delivers speeds equivalent to those of cable or fiber broadband.”

The speeds promised by 5G will also address issues consumers mentioned in the survey; 43 percent said they “face issues” when watching videos on smartphones and 41 percent “feel their mobile data speeds are not fast enough.” In the Gen Z demographic, 40+ percent said that “they expect to play more mobile video games once they have 5G,” and almost 35 percent of this demo and millennials noted that 5G will impact their use of AR and VR.

The next-gen networks could also unleash the potential of wearables, and “for telcos and smartphone makers, 5G could help address the issue of longer smartphone refresh cycles.” Deloitte found that “fewer than 60 percent of consumers said they plan to buy a new smartphone in the next two years … [although Wescott noted that] we are seeing 5G as a driving factor getting people to consider upgrading their phones.”

Deloitte also predicted that 5G will “spur adoption of home automation and control devices into mass adoption,” with 62 percent of smart home device users pegging “better connectivity in the home as one of the top three capabilities likely to drive them to use 5G.”

With regard to data privacy, 91 percent of respondents “believe they should be able to control, edit and delete personal data that platforms collect about them … while 72 percent indicated that they are more aware now of how their data is collected and used than a year ago [and] just 52 percent agreed that the value they get from free online services outweighs their privacy and security concerns.”