Ovum releases 5G subscription forecast

The global 5G subscriber base will grow to 400 million in 2022 from 84 million in 2021, 11 million in 2020 and 416K in 2019, said research agency Ovum.

​LTE technology has achieved more than 38.5 percent market share with 3.2 billion global connections in the first quarter of 2018, according to data from Ovum.
“While LTE continues to see phenomenal growth surpassing 50 percent in 2020, 5G begins to make its inroads beginning by 2022, with some regions – particularly North America and Oceania, Eastern and Southeastern Asia – starting to see some LTE subscriber declines as a result,” said Kristin Paulin, senior analyst at Ovum.

Telecom operators are deploying LTE on 597 networks including LTE-Advanced on 251 networks.

“We are hearing news of planned 5G deployments beginning later in 2018 and early 2019, however, LTE will continue to grow until 2022, when we will begin to see some substantial uptake in 5G connections,” Chris Pearson, president of 5G Americas, said.

Global LTE connections are forecast to reach 4 billion in 2019 and pass 5 billion in 2021 from 3.2 billion at present.