According to the Global System for Mobile Telecommunications Association (GSMA), new network deployments in more than 30 countries in 2023 alone would hasten the growth of 5G connections, which are expected to double over the following two years. It is anticipated that 15 of the new networks to be implemented in 2023 would be 5G Standalone networks.
In terms of mobile users and enterprise adoption, the GSMA Intelligence estimates for 2023, released during Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona, indicate a major period of growth.
The GSMA, which unites more than 750 mobile operators with close to 400 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem and represents the interests of mobile operators globally, stated that consumer connections exceeded one billion at the end of 2022 and would rise to about 1.5 billion this year before reaching two billion by the end of 2025. With respect to 3G and 4G, this momentum affirms 5G as having the fastest generational roll-out.
229 commercial 5G networks and over 700 5G smartphone models were available to users as of January 2023. According to GSMA, growth would also come from important APAC and LATAM economies like Brazil and India, both of which have just introduced 5G networks.
India was singled out as being particularly noteworthy, with the region’s continued adoption anticipated to be greatly aided by the development of services from Airtel and Jio in 2023.
By the end of 2025, four 5G networks with 145 million more customers are expected in India, according to GSMA Intelligence.
Many of the upcoming 5G markets, including Ethiopia and Ghana, are in developing parts of Asia and Africa and are expected to debut networks in 2023. In the sub-Saharan region, 5G adoption now stands at less than 1%, but will increase to over 4% by 2025 and 16% in 2030, partly due to a coordinated push from industry and government organizations to bring connectivity to citizens.
Head of GSMA Intelligence, Peter Jarich, said: “Until now, 5G adoption has been driven by relatively mature markets and consumer use cases like enhanced mobile broadband, but that’s changing. We’re now entering a second wave for 5G that will see the technology engage a diverse set of new markets and audiences.”
“The extension to new use cases and markets will challenge the mobile ecosystem to prove that 5G truly is flexible enough to meet these diverse demands in a way that’s both inclusive and innovative.”
Nonetheless, 5G-based fixed wireless services had been introduced in over 48 countries by January 2023 by more than 90 fixed broadband service providers, the bulk of which are mobile operators. This indicates that an FWA solution is currently present in about 40% of commercial 5G mobile launches worldwide.
In the US, T-Mobile added more than 500,000 5G FWA subscribers between Q4 2021 and Q1 2022. It anticipates eight million FWA subscribers by 2025, compared to Verizon’s five million FWA subscribers by the same year.
Additionally, with operators like Jio declaring plans to connect up to 100 million homes in India to their 5G FWA network, it appears that the number of FWA consumers will increase significantly over the next years.
Many operators worldwide are currently utilizing 5G mmWave spectrum as a capacity and performance booster to supplement the coverage offered by lower bands, even though the majority of current 5G FWA installations concentrate on the 3.5-3.8 GHz bands.
Only 7% of 5G launches have used 5G mmWave spectrum thus far, but this number is expected to rise considering that 35% of trials and 27% of spectrum allocations now use 5G mmWave bands.
In addition, ten more nations will be given 5G-mmWave spectrum for use in 2023 alone, compared to the 22 countries that have already been given it. The first 5G mmWave spectrum allocation in Europe was given to Spain this year, and as a result, Telefónica, Ericsson, and Qualcomm will showcase the first commercial 5G-mmWave network at MWC Barcelona in 2023.
According to the data from GSMA Intelligence, the enterprise market will likely be the primary factor driving 5G revenue growth for operators over the next ten years. For major operators, business customers currently account for 30% or more of total revenues, with room for growth as enterprise digitization picks up speed.
With 13% of operators currently launching private wireless solutions, the body said that edge computing and IoT technology presents further prospects for 5G. This number will increase with a larger spectrum of anticipated IoT deployments in 2023.
The commercial launch of 5G Advanced in 2025 will be another significant breakthrough for businesses. 5G Advanced, which focuses on uplink technology, will boost speed, coverage, mobility, and power efficiency while enabling a new wave of commercial prospects.
Half of operators intend to support 5G advanced commercial networks within two years of its launch, according to the GSMA’s Network Transformation survey. Although overly optimistic, this offers the ecology a clear opportunity to seize.
