The world will have 5.900 billion 5G subscribers by the end of 2027, according to new estimates by market analysts Omdia, a four-fold increase from 1.500 billion connections at the end of 2022.
The figure is expected to reach two billion 5G connections by 2023, according to the report, confirming recent estimates by Ericsson that global 5G subscriptions reached one billion by the end of 2022, with 136 million subscriptions added. to the fourth quarter only.
Omdia says 455 million new 5G connections were added globally in 2022, equating to 14% sequential quarterly growth (from 922 million in Q1050 to XNUMX billion in QXNUMX).
Of that number, 119 million 5G connections were in North America, in addition to its 507 million LTE connections. In all, Omdia expects some 215 million 5G connections to come from the mainland this year as the sale of 5G-enabled phones continues to rise.
“5G is experiencing remarkable growth and evolving faster than any previous generation of mobile wireless technology,” said Chris Pearson, president of 5G Americas. "As deployments and connections are added at a significant rate, the promise of 5G will be realized through technology advancements in areas such as autonomous architecture and network partitioning for new use cases."
For Kristin Paulin, principal analyst at Omdia, telecom operators are driving 5G adoption with lower prices and promotions on smartphones, "including some free offers on smartphones." "It's helping drive 5G adoption because there's extensive 5G coverage in North America, which probably makes it a 5G service area," she said. "All that's required is a 5G-eligible plan."
5G Americas also reports that the number of commercial 5G networks worldwide has now reached 259, and the industry trade organization expects 390 by the end of 2023. In two years, by the end of 2025, we could have more than 400, it said. .