Verizon Communications, in a presentation to analysts, said it expects revenue from 5G growth opportunities to increase next year and anticipates launching 5G in more than 30 cities by the end of this year.
Verizon is yet to reveal the number of 5G subscribers.
Verizon earlier said its operating revenues for third-quarter 2019 rose 0.9 percent to $32.9 billion — primarily driven by wireless service revenue, partially offset by lower wireless equipment revenue and declines in wireline revenue.
Verizon said its capital expenditures were $12.3 billion through third-quarter 2019. Capital expenditures were for build-out of Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network, the growth in data and video traffic on the company’s 4G LTE network, the deployment of significant fiber and the upgrade to Verizon’s Intelligent Edge Network architecture.
58 operators have commercially launched 5G services in 32 countries, according to Hadden’s latest research. At present, 336 network operators are investing in 5G in 118 countries.
US-based Qualcomm, the world’s largest supplier of mobile phone chips, said that it expects global smartphone makers to ship 450 million 5G handsets in 2021 and another 750 million in 2022.
Qualcomm said 5G adoption will be faster than 4G due to the timing of commercialization of the 5G technology in China and availability of chipsets across different price tiers.
Going by Qualcomm’s previous forecast of a range between 175 million and 225 million 5G devices for next year, the 2021 forecast suggests 125 percent growth from the midpoint of the 2020 outlook.
