At the moment, just 42% of the 505 industrial companies (with 50 or more employees) surveyed are planning or discussing the implementation of 5G. For 55% of them, the issue is not yet under discussion . Nonetheless, 23% of those surveyed expressed their conviction that the German economy would not suffer any setbacks even without 5G. When compared with other countries, just 2% of respondents saw Germany as a leader in 5G; 22% consider the Federal Republic to have already fallen too far behind. In order to build up 5G services quickly, Bitkom sees a need for a large increase in private investment. Among other things, the association is calling for more security and certainty in terms of the legal and planning aspects of the future focus of frequency regulation.

Major industrial operations in particular are already unwilling to wait to build up the network infrastructure. They rely on the possibility of fleshing out their own local networks. As the Spiegel reports , this has produced tension with established network providers: The latter group is wary of declining orders as a result of the loss of important major business partners.