The number of roaming subscribers using 5G mobile services will increase from 4.5 million in 2021 to 210 million in 2026, Juniper Research study said.

The tech report said vendors need to develop 5G-enabled roaming features such as roaming analytics, sponsored roaming and steering of roaming that will support the management of an increasing number of 5G roaming connections. The rise in demand for 5G roaming data will help operators to maximize 5G roaming monetization.

5G smartphone customers will expect comparable levels of bandwidth and latency when roaming over 5G to home network connectivity, and roaming vendors must accommodate this demand via value-added services.

The study projects that global roaming data traffic from 5G subscribers will increase from 2.6 PB in 2021 to 770 PB by 2026; representing enough data to stream 115 million hours of 4K video from platforms such as Netflix.

Research author Scarlett Woodford said: “A failure to provide 5G roaming capabilities in key travel destinations will diminish brand reputation amongst subscribers and lead to churn to competitors.”