Ericsson’s latest Mobility Report offers clear projections for the global rollout and adoption of 5G over the coming years.
The Swedish telecommunications company forecasts that within six years global 5G subscriptions will surpass 2.6 billion, with 5G networks covering approximately 65 percent of the world population by that time.
Ericsson also expects total mobile subscriptions — including legacy technologies such as 2G, 3G and 4G — to grow from around 8 billion today to roughly 8.9 billion in the next six years.
Average monthly data usage per smartphone is projected to climb sharply, from about 7.2 GB today to roughly 24 GB over the same period. That substantial increase will be driven by evolving consumer habits and new applications such as VR streaming, high-definition video, and other immersive services.
Game streaming is another high-growth use case likely to push mobile data consumption upward. For example, individual reports shared online have shown monthly data usage in the tens of gigabytes for single users streaming cloud gaming services, illustrating how interactive and high-bitrate services can rapidly increase data demand.
By 2025, Ericsson estimates that more than one quarter of global mobile subscriptions will be on 5G networks, and those subscriptions will account for around 45 percent of worldwide mobile data traffic.
Fredrik Jejdling, Executive Vice President and Head of Networks at Ericsson, commented:
“It is encouraging to see that 5G now has broad support from almost all device makers. In 2020, 5G-compatible devices will enter the volume market, which will scale up 5G adoption.
The question is no longer if, but how quickly we can convert use cases into relevant applications for consumers and enterprises.
With 4G remaining a strong connectivity enabler in many parts of the world, modernising networks is also key to this technological change we’re going through.”
Operators across Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and North America began activating 5G services in 2019, and early rollouts are already shaping regional adoption curves.
Ericsson highlights South Korea as an early leader: since launching commercial 5G networks in April, the country recorded more than three million 5G subscriptions by the end of September.
In China, initial adoption exceeded expectations; Ericsson revised its forecast for end-of-2019 5G subscriptions in China from 10 million to 13 million due to faster-than-anticipated uptake.
Overall, Ericsson expects 5G adoption to outpace the rollout of LTE. Regional forecasts show North America leading the shift, with an estimated 74 percent of subscriptions projected to be on 5G by the end of 2025, followed by North-East Asia at 56 percent and Europe at 55 percent.
As 5G networks expand and device availability increases, the industry is likely to see rapid growth in high-bandwidth, low-latency services that will reshape consumer and enterprise connectivity. Network modernisation alongside continued 4G availability will be crucial to support this transition and to enable the wide range of applications that 5G promises.