By Chinenye Anuforo
5G subscriptions will pass the one billion milestone by the end of 2022. The above forecast was contained in the latest edition of the Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) Mobility Report, which also showes that North America is to lead the world in 5G subscription penetration in the next five years with nine-of-every-ten subscriptions in the region expected to be 5G by 2027.
The 2027-timeline also includes projections that 5G will account for: 82 percent of subscriptions in Western Europe; 80 percent in the Gulf Cooperation Council region; and 74 percent in North East Asia.
In India, where 5G deployments have yet to begin, 5G is expected to account for nearly 40 percent of all subscriptions by 2027. In global terms, 5G is forecast to account for almost half of all subscriptions by 2027, topping 4.4 billion subscriptions.
The latest Ericsson Mobility Report – the twenty-second edition of Ericsson’s network traffic insights and forecasts – also revealed that global mobile network data traffic doubled in the past two years.
This traffic growth was driven by increased smartphone and mobile broadband usage, as well as the digitalization of society and industries. The recent statistics and forecasts highlight the strong demand data connectivity and digital services have, and are expected to have, despite the global Covid-19 pandemic and geopolitical uncertainties. Several hundred million people are becoming new mobile broadband subscribers every year.