2022 will see 550 mn 5G subscriptions; India, US to lead the way

With North America and India in the Asia Pacific region leading the way, in 2022 there will be 550 million 5G subscriptions, a new report has found.

India grew the most in terms of net additions during the third quarter of 2016 and Asia Pacific will be the second fastest growing region for 5G subscriptions, with 10 per cent of all subscriptions being 5G in 2022, said the latest edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report.

India currently has 1,050 million mobile subscriptions, of which over 15 million were added in the third quarter of 2016.

"India grew the most in terms of net additions during the quarter (+15 million), followed by China (+14 million), Indonesia (+6 million), Myanmar (+4 million) and the the Philippines (+4 million)," the report pointed out.

By the end of 2016, there would be 3.9 billion smartphone subscriptions globally. Almost 90 per cent of these subscriptions will be registered on WCDMA/HSPA and LTE networks.

"By 2022, the number of smartphone subscriptions is forecast to reach 6.8 billion, with more than 95 percent of the subscriptions registered on WCDMA/HSPA, LTE and 5G networks," the report stated.

"Almost 90 per cent of smartphone subscriptions are on 3G and 4G networks today. 5G will accelerate the digital transformation in many industries, enabling new use cases in areas such as IoT, automation, transport and big data," Ulf Ewaldsson, Chief Strategy and Technology Officer at Ericsson, said in a statement.

Till the third quarter of 2016, 84 million new mobile subscriptions were added during the quarter to reach a total of 7.5 billion -- growing at around three per cent year-on-year.

Mobile data traffic continued to grow, driven both by increased smartphone subscriptions and a continued increase in average data volume per subscription -- fuelled primarily by more viewing of video content.

In the third quarter, data traffic grew around 10 per cent quarter-on-quarter and 50 per cent year-on-year.