Ericsson’s latest Mobility Report pegs the number of mobile 5G subscriptions by the end of 2024 at 1.9 billion, a nearly 27 percent jump from the vendor’s earlier projections.
Early operator deployments and 5G device readiness helped boost the figure by 400 million more subscribers since Ericsson’s November forecast of 1.5 billion 5G subscriptions. At the end of 2024 Ericsson projects 5G subscriptions will account for more than 20 percent of the 7.2 billion total smartphone mobile subscriptions at that time.
By the end of this year alone, Ericsson projects there will be more than 10 million 5G subscriptions globally.
North America, which has already seen commercial 5G service launches from major providers including AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, is poised to lead 5G subscription uptake. Ericsson forecasts 63 percent of mobile subscriptions in North America will be 5G in 2024, followed by North East Asia with 47 percent, and Europe with 40 percent.
(Image Source: Ericsson Mobility Report June 2019)
Globally, 5G coverage is projected to span 45 percent of the world’s population by the end of the forecast period. Ericsson indicated that figure could jump to 65 percent with implementation of technology like spectrum sharing to enable 5G deployments on LTE bands.
“5G is definitely taking off and at a rapid pace. This reflects the service providers’ and consumers’ enthusiasm for the technology,” said Fredrik Jejdling, EVP and Head of Networks at Ericsson, in a statement. “5G will have positive impact on people’s lives and businesses, realizing gains beyond the IoT and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. However, the full benefits of 5G can only be reaped with the establishment of a solid ecosystem in which technology, regulatory, security, and industry partners all have a part to play.”
The report also looked at mobile data traffic, which soared 82 percent year over year in the first quarter and is expected to climb to 131 exabytes (EB) per month by the end of 2024. At that point, Ericsson projects 35 percent of mobile data traffic will be over 5G networks.
Cellular IoT is also expected to gain traction, with 1 billion global connections today, jumping to 4.1 billion in 2024. Massive IoT is expected to account for nearly half (45 percent) of those connections, with applications like smart metering for utilities, medical wearables, and transport tracking sensors.
Ericsson itself is a major supplier providing 5G network equipment around the world, with 21 publicly announced 5G contracts to date.
