Global wireless 5G connections have reached 438 million by the third quarter of 2021 and will exceed 540 million by the end of the year, according to data from Omdia, said 5G Americas.
The world has added 72 million 5G connections between Q2 and Q3 of 2021, increasing 19.6 percent from 366 million to 438 million. 5G is expected to more than double the number of connections in 2020 and is forecast to reach 540 million globally by the end of the calendar year.
Omdia estimates global 5G connections reaching 4.8 billion by the end of 2026. Of that, 516 million is expected to come from North America and 301 million from Latin America and the Caribbean.
While Oceania Eastern & South-Eastern Asia, which includes China, will account for more than half of all 5G subscriptions at the end of 2026. Americas region will manage to carve out a 17 percent portion after growing 1,000 percent from 2021 to 2026.
North America had a total of 56.5 million 5G connections by the end of Q3 2021, which is an addition of 12.5 million 5G connections – a gain of 28 percent quarter over quarter. Additionally, it had 505 million LTE connections by the end of Q3 2021.
4G LTE still remains the dominant wireless cellular technology in Latin America and the Caribbean with 484.6 million connections. That represents 21 percent annual growth with the addition of 82.8 million new LTE subscriptions year over year.
The number of 5G networks has reached 185, according to data from TeleGeography and 5G Americas. That number is expected to reach 220 by the end of 2021 and 329 by the end of 2023, representing strong 5G network investment growth in many regions throughout the world.
