Ninety percent of the wireless subscriptions in North America will be 5G in 2027, according to a 5G subscriptions forecast from Ericsson.
The Ericsson Mobility Report, which contains upbeat news for 5G providers and their ecosystem, says that there will be more than 1 billion 5G subscribers by the end of this year.
The report found that in 2027 82% of subscriptions in Western Europe will be 5G, 80% in the Gulf Cooperation Zone Council region and 74% in northeast Asia. By 2027, there will be more than 4.4 billion 5G subscriptions, which will represent almost half of all wireless subscriptions, the report says.
5G Subscriptions Forecast
The report found that 5G is the fastest growing of all wireless generations. Today, about one quarter of the world has access to 5G connectivity. That portion will grow to three-quarters by 2027. Seventy million 5G subscribers were added during the first quarter of this year alone, the report says.
Fixed wireless access (FWA) also is thriving. The report says that there will be more than 100 million connections this year and almost 230 million by 2027.
Finally, the report said that NB-IoT and Cat-M connections increased by almost 80% last year to reach almost 330 million connections. The IoT communications technologies are expected to overtake 2G/3G IoT connections next year.
5G benefited by using a phased approach to rollouts. “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,” Ericsson Mobility Executive Editor Peter Jonsson said in a press release. “A solid digital network infrastructure underpins enterprises’ digital transformation plans, and their new capabilities can be turned into new customer services.”
In June 2020, the Ericsson Mobility Report found that fixed broadband networks were used for two and a half hours more per day and mobile networks were used one hour more per day due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
