"No Evidence 5G Improves Wages, Business Growth, Personal Income or GDP"

“There is no evidence that 5G deployment has improved employment, wages, business growth, personal income, or GDP,” says George Ford, Phoenix Centerfor Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies chief economist. 

The analysis “finds no evidence that 5G deployment has delivered the massive economic benefits promised by the mobile industry, says Ford. Despite claims that 5G would generate $1.4 to $1.7 trillion in GDP and create 3.8 to 4.6 million jobs, this analysis finds no statistically significant positive effects on employment, wages, business establishments, personal income, or GDP across U.S. counties with varying levels of 5G coverage, he notes. 

Sure, more bandwidth is helpful. But the analysis suggests the claims about 5G being transformative have failed to materialize. Perhaps we should not be surprised. Other studies suggest that while there is economic benefit to increasing internet access speeds from low dial-up speeds to moderate broadband speeds, the value seems to diminish beyond a fairly-low threshold. 

Some studies collectively suggest that while upgrading from dial-up or low-speed broadband (<10 Mbps) to moderate speeds (25–50 Mbps) yields substantial socioeconomic and personal benefits, further increases to super-fast speeds (>100 Mbps) often result in diminishing returns, with benefits becoming less pronounced or primarily private in nature.

Study	Publication Date	Link	Findings
Socioeconomic benefits of high-speed broadband availability and service adoption: A survey	2023	Science Direct	study finds that socioeconomic benefits like economic growth and productivity are significant with high-speed broadband but show diminishing returns beyond a certain quality level. It emphasizes that adoption, not just availability, drives these benefits.
Distinguishing Bandwidth and Latency in Households' Willingness-to-Pay for Broadband Internet Speed	August 15, 2017	Researchgate	study finds that socioeconomic benefits like economic growth and productivity are significant with high-speed broadband but show diminishing returns beyond a certain quality level. It emphasizes that adoption, not just availability, drives these benefits.
Is faster better? Quantifying the relationship between broadband speed and economic growth	2018	Science Direct	study finds no significant economic payoff when increasing speeds from 10 Mbps to 25 Mbps, suggesting that benefits are mostly private (e.g., faster downloads) rather than broadly economic.
A retrospective study on the regional benefits and spillover effects of high-speed broadband networks: Evidence from German counties	2019	Science Direct	study identifies an optimal broadband speed of 37.4 Mbps for regional GDP, with diminishing returns beyond this threshold.
Low demand despite broad supply: Is high-speed Internet an infrastructure of general interest?	2022	Science Direct	study notes low adoption rates for speeds above 50 Mbps, even when available, indicating that consumer demand for super-fast speeds is limited, particularly among smaller or lower-income households.

Draw your own conclusions, but it might be reasonable to suggest that internet access is important at a basic level (having access versus not having access is vital). What seems less clear are the advantages of higher speeds. Beyond a certain point, it might not matter much.

And we might be skeptical about the touted application benefits, as we don’t see much of that. Blame the ecosystem, the mobile service providers, developers or even users if you like. What seems rather clear is that “dumb pipe” internet access is essential, but speeds are less so. 

And the relationship between faster speeds and app development or economic benefits seems unclear.