The report predicts that current global 5G subscriptions will pass the one billion milestone by the end of 2022.
The report’s 2027 timeline will include projections 5G will account for: there will be 82% of subscriptions in Western Europe; 80% in the Gulf Cooperation Council region; and 74% in Northeast Asia.
While 5G deployments have yet to begin in India, 5G in the country is expected to account for nearly 40% of all subscriptions by 2027.
Worldwide, 5G is forecast to account for almost half of all subscriptions by 2027, topping 4.4 billion subscriptions.
The report also reveals that global mobile network data traffic doubled in the past two years driven by increased smartphone and mobile broadband usage as well as digitalisation of society and industries.
The recent statistics and forecasts highlight the strong demand data connectivity and digital services have, and are expected to have, despite the global pandemic and geopolitical uncertainties. Several hundred million people are becoming new mobile broadband subscribers every year.
The report verified that 5G is scaling faster than all previous mobile technology generations. About a quarter of the world's population currently has access to 5G coverage.
Some 70 million 5G subscriptions were added during the first quarter of 2022 alone. By 2027, about three-quarters of the world's population will be able to access 5G, according to the report.
"The deployment of 5G standalone (SA) networks is increasing in many regions as communications service providers (CSPs) gear up for innovation to address business opportunities beyond enhanced mobile broadband. A solid digital network infrastructure underpins enterprises' digital transformation plans, and their new capabilities can be turned into new customer services,” comments Ericsson executive editor Ericsson Mobility Report Peter Jonsson.
Ericsson predicts that the number of fixed wireless access connections will exceed 100 million in 2022, a figure that is forecast to more than double by 2027, reaching almost 230 million.
On Internet of Things (IoT), the report notes that in 2021, broadband IoT (4G/5G) overtook 2G and 3G as the technology that connects the largest share of all cellular IoT connected devices, accounting for 44% of all connections.
Massive IoT technologies (NB-IoT, Cat-M) increased by almost 80% during 2021, reaching close to 330 million connections. The number of IoT devices connected by these technologies is expected to overtake 2G/3G in 2023.
This first appeared in the subscription newsletter CommsWire on 22 June 2022.
