Just over four years after the first global commercial launch in South Korea (two and a half years in France), 5G has finally found its audience. According to the latest edition of Ericsson’s mobility report, the latest mobile phone standard had 1.1 billion subscribers in the first quarter. They will be 1.5 billion by the end of the year. By 2028, the Swedish equipment manufacturer predicts that 5G will represent more than half of mobile subscriptions in the world with 4.6 billion users.
While 5G covers 35% of the world’s population, the number of effective subscribers varies greatly by region. North America has the highest penetration rate with 41% of its mobile subscribers in 5G followed by North-East Asia (Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong) with a rate of 30% and the Gulf countries (18%).
Benefiting from particularly dense 4G coverage, Western Europe is lagging behind (13%) but should catch up with a penetration rate of 88% expected in 2028.
India, the fastest growing country
However, India is showing the fastest growth. The world’s most populous country had only around ten million 5G subscriptions in 2022 but is expected to convert 57% of its subscribers to the new standard by the end of 2028.
If 5G coverage is currently non-existent in sub-Saharan Africa, an offer should emerge driven by a very young population and a strong demand for connectivity.
Some 240 telecom operators offer 5G in their catalog, of which around 35 are already at the next stage of maturity, 5G standalone (SA). This is the case in France of Orange or Bouygues Telecom. With a speed multiplied by ten and a latency time of the order of a millisecond, 5G SA enables advanced services in the fields of virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality.
5G smartphones, more than 60% of sales
Mechanically, the adoption of 5G is linked to the increase in compatible terminals. While mobile sales are collapsing, the top of the range, ahead of innovation, is holding up relatively well. With more than 870 5G smartphone models on the market to date, including more than 80 in 2023, 5G mobiles are expected to represent 62% of global sales in 2023.
To encourage their customers to switch to 5G, mobile phone operators offer services associated with their packages such as subscriptions to audio streaming, video on demand or cloud gaming platforms, or even cooking classes or training sessions. yoga.
In the space of two years, mobile data consumption has almost doubled to 126 exabytes (1269 GB). 70% of traffic is generated by only a tenth of users consuming more than 20 GB per month. Unsurprisingly, they are mainly found in North America and Europe. After video, social networks are the most bandwidth-consuming applications.
5G extends to IoT and satellites
With the launch of versions dedicated to the Internet of Things (IoT) – 5G NR-Light, 5G RedCap – 5G should extend to connected devices such as smart watches in the general public or sensors in the industrial world.
The study notes that 4G/5G is the most widely used technology for cellular IoT devices with 1.3 billion connections due to its high throughput and low latency.
In remote areas, in high mountains or at sea – the 5G NTN (Non-Terrestrial Network) is expected to complement traditional 5G by offering a satellite connection. Samsung recently unveiled a 5G modem for these non-terrestrial networks.