The size of the 5G market will reach $14.5 billion in 2023 due to the demand for 5G private networks among enterprises and the upgrading of the equipment for small cells and 5G FWA, TrendForce forecasts.
The 5G market will scale up to $37 billion in 2026, with the CAGR for the 2023~2026 period coming to 11 percent. Applications related to the Metaverse will help spur the demand for 5G networks during the period.
The main application segments of the market for 5G networks are industrial manufacturing, energy and utilities, medical solutions, smart vehicles, public transportation, and consumer electronics.
Industrial manufacturing will have the largest share of 32 percent of the projected 5G value of $37 billion in 2026.
Manufacturing companies across the world will leverage 5G to mainly upgrade their factories, such as making production processes more intelligent and combining production processes with solutions related to data visualization and analysis.
Energy and utilities will have the second largest share of 18 percent. The connection of smart energy meters to a power grid will require a 5G network. Furthermore, 5G technologies will be embedded in the energy equipment for monitoring power generation and predicative maintenance.
Medical solutions will have the third largest share of 15 percent. Efforts to incorporate 5G into the field of healthcare will mainly focus on telemedicine that can raise clinical efficiency in remote areas.
Smart vehicles and public transportation will account for 25 percent of the 5G market in 2026. Carmakers and suppliers for automotive components want to leverage 5G’s lower latency to develop better advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).
Consumer electronics application will account for 10 percent of the total 5G market value in 2026. 5G solutions will be embedded in smart appliances and devices so that they are all interconnected.
Taiwan-based companies in the 5G market will focus on products related to small cells, commercial private 5G networks used by enterprises, and 5G FWA equipment.
Taiwan’s SERCOM has developed 5G small cells and 5G FWA equipment. Shipments of its products have also been ramped up in order to meet the surging market demand generated by the aforementioned developments.
Askey, another network equipment provider from Taiwan, came to CES 2023 to promote its 5G private networks. The company seeks to expand its presence in the European and North American markets for 5G applications and services.
Network equipment manufacturers such as Nokia, Ericsson, and Huawei are now eyeing opportunities coming from the Metaverse. These companies have invested resources to upgrade their network equipment and optimize their network environments to support related services and applications.
Nokia is developing two Metaverse technologies through its subsidiary Bell Labs: human augmentation and digital-physical future.
Ericsson is now working on time-critical communication as one of its core 5G offerings. Time-critical communication can optimize 5G hardware and ensure highly reliable real-time services.
Huawei is also deploying hardware across Africa in addition to its existing markets in North America and Europe.
Safaricom, the largest operator in Kenya, has become the first mobile service provider in East Africa to roll out a commercial 5G high-speed network by adopting Huawei’s solutions for network infrastructure.
