STOCKHOLM — Driven by an estimated one million new 5G subscriptions every day, the total number of 5G mobile subscriptions around the world will exceed 580 million by the end of 2021, according to the latest Ericsson Mobility Report, released Wednesday morning.
In the report, Ericsson forecasts about 3.5 billion 5G subscriptions and 60% 5G population coverage globally by the end of 2026.
Ericsson says 5G remains on track to become the fastest adopted mobile generation in history, although the pace of adoption varies widely by region.
“Europe is off to a slower start and has continued to fall far behind China, the U.S., Korea, Japan and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) markets in the pace of 5G deployments,” reads Ericsson’s press release announcing key findings from the report. (The GCC member states are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.)
“5G is expected to surpass a billion subscriptions two years ahead of the 4G LTE timeline for the same milestone. Key factors behind that include China’s earlier commitment to 5G and the earlier availability and increasing affordability of commercial 5G devices. More than 300 5G smartphone models have already been announced or launched commercially,” says the press release.
By 2026, North East Asia is expected to account for the largest share of 5G subscriptions, with an estimated 1.4 billion 5G subscriptions, while North American and GCC markets are expected to account for the highest 5G subscription penetration, with 5G mobile subscriptions comprising 84% and 73% of all regional mobile subscriptions, respectively, according to Ericsson.
The report provides some insight into how smartphone usage is driving growth in global mobile data traffic, which exceeded 49 exabytes per month at the end of 2020 and is projected to grow by a factor of close to five to reach 237 exabytes per month in 2026. (One exabyte = one billion gigabytes.) Smartphones, which currently carry 95% of this traffic, are also consuming more data than ever — globally, the average usage-per-smartphone now exceeds 10 GB/month and is forecast to reach 35 GB/month by the end of 2026, says Ericsson.
Ericsson also forecasts Massive IoT technology (NB-IoT and Cat-M) connections will increase by almost 80% during 2021, reaching almost 330 million connections. In 2026, these technologies are forecast to comprise 46% of all cellular IoT connections, according to Ericsson.
The 20th edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report can be downloaded here.
