Number of 5G connections to surpass 1.1 bn: Omdia

The number of 5G wireless connections globally is expected to surpass 1.1 billion by the end of 2022 from 922 million in Q3 2022, according to telecom statistics from Omdia.
5G deployment status in 2022
“5G continues to make significant progress. The foundation of this new era of innovation is spectrum, standards and a growing ecosystem of key technologies that are being adopted by operators, vendors and end users,” Chris Pearson, President of 5G Americas said.

433 million global 5G connections were added from Q3 2021 to Q3 2022, almost doubling connections from 489 million to 922 million.

5G continues to build out globally and will account for just over half of smartphones shipped worldwide in 2022, rising to 80 percent by 2026, IDC report said recently.

Global 5G connections are forecast to again accelerate in 2023, approaching 2 billion and reaching 5.9 billion by the end of 2027, a report from 5G Americas said.
5G connections forecast for 2023-2025
5G coverage in Tier-1 cities will reach 60 percent in 2024, said Michael Porowski, senior principal research analyst at Gartner, said in a August 2021 report.

North America is a leader in the uptake of wireless 5G connections with a total of 108 million 5G and 506 million LTE connections by the end of Q3 2022. 5G penetration in the North American market is approaching 30 percent, as the region added 14 million 5G connections for the quarter – a gain of 15.47 percent over Q2 2022. 137 million 5G connections are projected to come from North America by the end of 2022, 5G Americas said.

IDC predicts the US 5G smartphone market will reach 118.1 million units shipped in 2022, showing a 27 percent increase from 2021.

Kristin Paulin, Principal Analyst at Omdia said: “There is still much more to come from 5G that will drive growth. Expanding mid-band coverage will bring a better 5G experience, balancing coverage and speed. And the standalone 5G deployments in progress will enable new applications that take 5G to the next level.”

4G LTE is expected to remain strong in Latin America and the Caribbean through the end of 2022. In Q3 2022, there were 530 million 4G LTE connections, representing 2.14 percent quarterly growth with the addition of 11 million new LTE subscriptions. Latin America and the Caribbean is projected to have 22 million 5G connections by year end of 2022, and 399 million by 2027.

The number of 5G commercial networks globally has reached 250. That number is expected to reach 253 by the end of 2022 and 397 by the end of 2025.