Only 25% of residents – one in four – are ready for the launch of fifth-generation cellular networks in Russia. The remaining 75% (about 109.5 million people) will need to buy new smartphones, CNews reports, citing statistics from Vigo and Rosstat data.

At the same time, smartphone sales are rapidly declining in the country. In the first half of 2026, the market decreased by 7.8% in physical terms – to 12 million devices. In monetary terms, the decline was 5.9% to 260 billion rubles. The average price increased by 2% to 21.9 thousand rubles, but this did not help compensate for the decline. Russians began to use old phones longer and are not in a hurry for new products.

Apple and Samsung, which left Russia in 2022, are partly to blame for the low readiness for 5G. As Megafon CEO Khachatur Pombukhchan stated, only about 37% of smartphones in Russia can work with 5G, but if devices from these two brands are excluded, only 15% will remain. Vigo confirmed: even if 5G were launched today, the “5G” icon would not appear on Apple devices and the latest Samsung models without the manufacturers' permission. For 5G to work in a specific country, the manufacturer must issue a special permit through a firmware update – activate support for the necessary frequencies.

There is another problem: in Russia, 4.63–4.99 GHz frequencies are planned for 5G instead of the “golden band” of 3.4–3.8 GHz, which is occupied by security forces. Many smartphones that support 5G may be incompatible with Russian networks, and major vendors may not add support for the necessary frequencies for the sake of the small Russian market. In addition, future Russian networks will require support for the domestic “Kuznechik” encryption algorithm, which is currently absent in foreign devices.

At the same time, there are no commercial 5G networks in Russia as of August 2026 – no operator has built them. The lag behind the US and China, where 5G has been operating since 2019, is measured in years. Operators are only advertising 5G based on fourth-generation networks, for which the FAS has already started inspections.