Ericsson, a global telecommunications equipment company, predicted that the number of 5G service subscriptions worldwide will reach 56 in five years, accounting for 60% of the total.

The number of new 5G subscriptions is expected to reach 600 million worldwide in 2024 alone. Ericsson said it had already secured 160 million new subscriptions in the first quarter of this year.

Ericsson released the 'Ericsson Mobility Report' on the 18th, which contains the latest insights on 5G and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) services, mobile subscriptions, and data traffic. Ericsson LG held a press conference to announce the main contents of the Ericsson Mobility Report.

Ericsson sees Northeast Asia in particular as a hotbed for 5G services. It analyzed that the overall 5G service subscription rate in Korea, Japan, and China will increase from 41% to approximately 80% in 2029.

Park Byung-sung, Technical Director at Ericsson-LG, who presented at the press conference, said, “In Northeast Asia, including Korea, the growth in 5G subscriptions continued in 2023, and telecommunications companies in the region are continuing to invest in improving the indoor quality of 5G services and enhancing coverage and capacity.” He added, “The 5G ecosystem will continue to expand in the future thanks to these investments.”

The report also presented high satisfaction results for higher speeds among mid-band 5G users. In a comparison of mid-band 5G, low-band 5G, and 4G (LTE) service performance, 97% of mid-band 5G service users on commercial networks recorded a reach time of less than 1.5 seconds. On the other hand, 67% of low-band 5G service users and 38% of 4G (LTE) service users experienced fast speeds.

Ericsson explained that as of April 2024, 241 out of 310 telecommunications operators worldwide were operating FWA services, and the proportion of 5G FWA continued to increase, reaching 53%.

Ericsson said in the report, “5G FWA services have enabled telecom operators to create speed-based FWA services due to their high speed, data processing capabilities, and low latency.” It added, “FWA is the most widely applied 5G use case following enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) services, and is expected to grow centered on emerging markets such as India.” Mobile data traffic is expected to grow by an average of 20% per year until the end of 2029. 5G traffic will account for 75% of all mobile data traffic. Ericsson cited the generational change in mobile communication and the increased demand for data-intensive services as factors driving the increase in mobile data traffic.

On this day, Ericsson forecasted that the smartphone market would recover in 2024. Smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2024 increased by 6% year-on-year, recovering growth that had been declining for nearly three years. Ericsson predicted that “there will be an increase in the number of consumers upgrading their devices to chipsets with generative AI capabilities, with on-device AI technologies applied.”

We are also optimistic about the transition to 5G SA (standalone mode). 5G network slicing is supported on many devices, and there are more than five RedCap-supported modem vendors.

“5G use cases and subscriptions, led by eMBB and FWA services, continue to grow globally,” said Fredrik Jejdling, Executive Vice President and Head of Business Area Networks, Ericsson. “The commercialization of Standalone (SA) 5G is an essential step for the continued advancement of 5G and will unlock service innovation and new business models for the telecom industry.”