According to a report by 5G Americas, the forecasts for 5G connections have risen, even before the first standardized 5G commercial deployment. While separate analyses by Ericsson and CCS Insight expected 1 billion 5G subscriptions by 2023, recent analyst forecasts indicate numbers could be even higher as 5G starts to ramp up from 2020 through 2023.
This shows a positive trend in the deployment of 5G technology and may be partially driven by the robust nature of cooperation and collaboration for this next generation wireless revolution. 5G Americas is set to host the 5th Global 5G Event, 5G New Horizons Wireless Symposium on May 16 and 17 in Austin, TX. The event will host 5G leaders from China, Japan, Korea, European Union, Brazil and the Americas to collaborate on the global progress of 5G.
Based on a variety of forecasts from industry leaders and analysts, the measurable start of 5G subscriptions has moved forward considerably due to several industry accomplishments over the past six months. A key element has been the early completion by the 3GPP standards organization of the Release 15 Non-Standalone 5G specifications in late 2017 that allows the wireless ecosystem of vendors to build 5G infrastructure equipment and develop the needed chipsets and other components for devices.
Other key contributions in the trend for increased forecasts for 5G connections are the announcements by leading U.S. operators AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile, which promise mobile 5G services later this year or early next year. In addition, Verizon will be launching fixed access 5G services this year. According to analyst firm CCS Insight, the U.S. will have 100 million 5G connections in 2022. AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile USA will provide keynote addresses at the 5G New Horizons Wireless Symposium on their trials and plans for 5G deployments. Globally, the U.S., China, Japan and South Korea are expected to deploy 5G earlier than other parts of the world.
In April 2017, Cisco forecasted 25 million 5G-capable devices and connections by 2021; analyst firm Ovum currently predicts 84 million by 2021; CCS Insight increased their predictions this month by 50 percent (over their October 2017 forecast) to 280 million 5G connections in 2021, with 60 million 5G connections expected in 2020. Ovum expects 11 million 5G connections in 2020. By 2023, both CCS and Ericsson forecast 1 billion 5G connections worldwide.
