Ericsson predicts substantial growth ahead of widespread 5G adoption, and Verizon’s recent announcement offers a clear signal that this forecast may materialize.
In its most recent biannual mobility report, Ericsson outlined expectations for significant expansion over the coming decade. The company anticipates 5G will reach about 20 percent of the global population and amount to roughly one billion subscriptions by 2023.
That rise in 5G adoption presents numerous opportunities for Ericsson, and the vendor is poised to benefit even before 5G becomes pervasive.
Notably, the report highlights technologies Ericsson sees as important milestones on the path to gigabit speeds: higher-order carrier aggregation, 4×4 MIMO, and 256 QAM. These enhancements will help networks handle the dramatic surge in mobile data demand Ericsson forecasts—an approximately eightfold increase to around 110 exabytes per month by 2023.
Most of this traffic growth is expected to come from Northeast Asia and North America, regions that already consume the most mobile data. For example, average data use per smartphone in North America is projected to rise from about 5.2 GB to 48 GB. Emerging markets, including India and many countries in the Middle East, are also expected to see substantial increases, though from a lower baseline.
In North America, Verizon has chosen Ericsson as a key partner for its 5G network rollout. The two companies plan to begin deployments in the second half of 2018, using Ericsson’s 5G core network, 5G radio access network (RAN), transport services, and related solutions.
“Our pioneering work with 5G will make U.S. consumers and businesses among the first in the world to benefit from the transformative services of the new technology,” said Fredrik Jejdling, Ericsson Executive Vice President. “It further illustrates how our global 5G portfolio, designed to support 5G NR as standardized in 3GPP, enables first movers in the early commercialization of 5G networks.”
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