Rapid growth and enthusiasm for 5G have led Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) to anticipate another 400 million mobile broadband subscriptions, upgraded by the end of 2024. June 2019 edition of Ericsson Mobility Report estimated 1.9 billion subscriptions 5G - up from the 1.5 billion anticipated in the edition of November 2018 - an increase of almost 27%.
As a result of rapid 5G assimilation, other estimates have also increased significantly. 5G coverage is estimated to reach 45% of the world's population by the end of 2024. This could increase up to 65%, as spectrum sharing technology will allow the implementation of 5G on the LTE frequency bands. Multi-market communications service providers have switched to 5G after launching 5G compatible smartphones. In addition, service providers in some markets set more ambitious targets for population coverage of up to 90% in the first year.
The strong commitment of chipset and device vendors is key to accelerating 5G adoption. Throughout this year, it is going to enter the smartphone market for all major spectrum bands. As 5G devices are becoming more available and more 5G networks become available, over 10 million 5G subscriptions are estimated worldwide by the end of 2019.
The 5G subscriptions are expected to be the fastest in North America, with 63% of mobile subscriptions expected in the region for 2024 for 5G. Northeast Asia ranks second (47%) and Europe ranked third (40%).
Fredrik Jejdling, Executive Vice President and Network Manager at Ericsson, said: "5G is definitely developing at a fast pace. This reflects the enthusiasm of service providers and consumers for this technology. 5G will have a positive impact on people's lives and business, making gains beyond the IoT and the fourth industrial revolution. However, it can only benefit from 5G by creating a solid ecosystem in which all technology, regulatory, security and industry partners play a role."
Total Mobile Data Traffic continued to grow globally in Q1 2019, up 82% over the previous year. It is estimated that it will reach 131EB per month by the end of 2024, when it is expected that 35% will be in 5G networks. There are 1 billion global IoT cellular connections, expected to grow to 4.1 billion by the end of 2024, of which 45% is Massive IoT. Industries that use Massive IoT include smart metering utilities, medical care in the form of medical clothing and transport with tracking sensors. The report of June 2019 also contains three articles written with service providers that provide information on progress in the markets that are about to adopt or already implement 5G.
With Telstra in Australia, Ericsson is exploring the ever-growing demand-driven management of data and video, while retaining consumer experience, especially for streaming live content.
MTS in Russia helps describe how mobile networks should evolve to ensure network performance that meets customer expectations during 5G preparations. The article written with Turkish Turkcell analyzes how network performance and service offerings are managed through a fixed-access wireless network (FWA) deployment.
Read the full version of Ericsson Mobility Report, June 2019
