Ericsson says there are now more than 700 million active 5G subscriptions worldwide, including 70 million in the last three months alone.
In an update to its annual Ericsson Mobility Report, the company said the number of subscriptions across all mobile technologies now stands at 8.300 billion, with 6.100 billion unique subscribers.
While this confirms that 5G is still a long way from becoming the mainstream mobile technology, it does give an indication of the pace of global adoption.
5G subscriptions
Ericsson says that 5G is evolving faster than any previous generation of mobile technology, with a quarter of the world's population now having access to it. By 2027, this figure will have increased to three quarters.
In the original report, Ericsson predicted that there would be one billion 5G subscriptions by the end of 2022 (opens in a new tab).
To date, 218 operators have launched commercial 5G services, of which 24 have launched stand-alone 5G networks (5G SA).
While all commercial 5G networks use new radio technologies, only the 5G SA infrastructure uses a cloud-based core that delivers the performance and low latency required for some of the most innovative applications.
Overall mobile data traffic grew 39% year over year, with the monthly amount now reaching 100 exabytes (EB).
Ericsson predicts that within five years, 5G will account for 90% of all mobile subscriptions in North America, 82% in Western Europe, and 74% in Northeast Asia.
The company's forecast is broadly in line with a more optimistic recent analysis from CCS Insight that claimed there would be 1200 billion subscriptions by the end of 2022 and 4500 billion by 2026.