The number of 5G mobile subscriptions will be 150 million by 2021, according to Ericsson Mobility Report.
“ICT transformation will become even more common across industries as 5G moves from vision to reality in the coming years,” said Rima Qureshi, chief strategy officer of Ericsson.
South Korea, Japan, China and the US will lead with the first, and fastest, 5G subscription uptake. 5G will connect new types of devices, enabling new use cases related to the Internet of Things (IoT).
5G subscription uptake is expected to be faster than for LTE 4G. 5G networks, based on standards that will meet ITU IMT-2020 requirements, are expected to be deployed commercially in 2020. Pre-standard, pre-commercial networks are expected to be launched earlier in selected telecom markets boosting IoT projects.
The number of devices with mobile capabilities and a subscription will increase by 50 percent by 2021.
Significant increase in mobile video consumption is driving around six times higher traffic volumes per smartphone in North America and Europe during 2015 to 2021. Data traffic per active smartphone will grow from 3.8 to 22 GB per month by 2021 in North America and from 2 to 18 GB per month in Western Europe.
The number of new mobile broadband subscriptions activated every second is 20. In 2016 we will reach the four billion mark for smartphone subscriptions alone.
The Ericsson Mobility Report says mobile broadband subscriptions will reach 7.7 billion globally by 2021. Mobile broadband will complement fixed broadband in some segments, and will be the dominant mode of access in others.
By 2030, ICT could enable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the current carbon footprint of the US and EU combined, said Ericsson Mobility Report.
Global mobile data traffic will to grow 10-fold by 2021. Video traffic will account for 70 percent of total mobile traffic. YouTube accounts for up to 70 percent of all video traffic, while Netflix’s share of video traffic can reach 20 percent in markets where it is available.
The Ericsson Mobility Report said Mainland China overtakes the US as world’s largest LTE market.
Mainland China will have 350 million LTE subscriptions – nearly 35 percent of the world’s total LTE subscriptions – in 2015. The Chinese market is predicted to have 1.2 billion LTE subscriptions by 2021.
Mobile subscriptions across Africa will reach 1 billion.
editor@telecomlead.com
