Infrastructure manufacturer Ericsson predicted 5G will account for 40% of all connections in India by 2027 despite operators not launching commercial services yet in the South Asian country.

The Indian government expressed confidence this week, that commercial 5G services will roll out sometime this year, as the long-awaited spectrum auction looms.

In Ericsson’s latest Mobility Report, the company forecasted by the end of this year there will be over one billion 5G connections. This will grow to 4.4 billion by 2027 which is almost half of all subscriptions.  

Looking ahead, North America will lead the world in 5G subscription penetration over the next five years, with nine in 10 connections expected to be 5G. Western Europe will see a penetration rate of 82%; 80% in the Gulf Cooperation Council region; and 74% in North-East Asia.

Mobile data traffic will also double, driven by increased smartphone and mobile broadband usage, as well as the digital transformation of society and industries.

The report also detailed that 5G is scaling faster than previous generations of mobile technology. A quarter of the world’s population currently has access to 5G, around 70 million 5G subscriptions were added during Q1 of this year alone.

In 2027 almost three-quarters of the global population will have access to 5G, claimed Ericsson.

The report also highlighted Fixed Wireless Access is rising in prominence and connections through it will exceed 100 million in 2022, and more than double to 230 million by 2027.

In IoT Ericsson noted broadband IoT using 4G/5G overtook those that use 2G/3G, accounting for 44% of IoT devices.

Massive IoT technologies such as NB-IoT and Cat-M increased by almost 80% during 2021, reaching close to 330 million connections. The number of IoT devices connected by these technologies is expected to overtake 2G/3G in 2023. 

Ericsson Executive Editor Peter Jonsson said: “The deployment of 5G standalone (SA) networks is increasing in many regions as communications service providers gear up for innovation to address business opportunities beyond enhanced mobile broadband.

« A solid digital network infrastructure underpins enterprises’ digital transformation plans, and their new capabilities can be turned into new customer services.”

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The cloud and managed service provider space has been a dynamic environment over the past few years as technology races to keep up with changes in the enterprise marketplace.  With the workforce shifting from corporate campuses out to suburban homes, enterprises have increasingly had to lean on such providers to help make rapid transitions.  One of those out there in the trenches is Xtel Communications, which has charted an independent and organic path through most of the last three.  With us today to talk about the company’s approach and outlook on the industry is Xtel’s President, Brian Flynn. … [visit site to read more]

Keep up-to-date with all the latest news, articles, event and product updates posted on Developing Telecoms.
Subscribe to our FREE weekly email newsletters for the latest telecom info in developing and emerging markets globally.

Uruguay’s communications watchdog URSEC, gave permission to Cable Montevideo, Tractoral, Korfield, Praimar and Riselco to sell broadband internet services.

BNamericas reported, that the five providers forced the regulator’s hand after filing legal action, challenging a law prohibiting TV operators from selling voice and data services.

Uruguay’s supreme court of justice ruled in 2016 that the companies had the right to expand their portfolio to other sectors but the article remained due to a lack of political support to take it down.

State-owed operator Antel was the only provider that had permission to offer fixed broadband products.

An expert speaking to BNamericas said the move could pave the way for the law to be removed, as so far, only companies in the original lawsuit have permission.

Namibian operator MTC has called for the country’s government to end its ongoing moratorium on the deployment of 5G networks as it lays the foundation for its own fifth generation network.

Local outlet The Namibian reports that MTC is currently in discussions with the government around lifting the moratorium. As reported by TeleGeography, MTC has long maintained that its spectrum allocation does not correspond to its subscriber base, which is the largest in the market. This has resulted in capacity problems which have prevented it from delivering 3G and 4G services in more remote areas. MTC estimates that it will require 100MHz of 3.5GHz spectrum to deploy a 5G network.

MTC spokesperson Tim Ekandjo noted that 5G would be instrumental in Namibia’s fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), saying: “It is important that a conducive policy framework is in place to stimulate participation rather than inhibiting it. We must note that 5G is a fundamental platform for 4IR … 5G combines greater data transfer speeds and heightened processing power to enable IoT connectivity on a massive scale. It would have a significant impact on every aspect of our digital lives – with 5G comes high data rates, reduced latency, energy savings, cost reductions.”

Ekandjo struck out at the government’s rationale behind the 5G moratorium, adding: “Sadly, we still have a moratorium on 5G in Namibia, and it is rather unfortunate that a country that has always been first in rolling out such technologies has now become the last due to conspiracy theories that have never made sense in the first place.”

MTC has signed a cooperation agreement with Chinese vendor Huawei and the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) as it prepares for the advent of 5G in the market.

NUST vice chancellor Erold Naomab said: “We are proud to extend our partnership with MTC to Huawei under the framework of the Smart Campus Initiative. As partners, we are all committed to pooling resources, expertise, and networks to improve competitiveness through trans-disciplinary research, co-creation and co-development, application and transfer of specialised knowledge, and technology aligned with NUST’s signature programme.”

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Eli Katz, CEO at XConnect

International robocalling impacts the entire telecoms value chain from carriers to consumers. To help prevent robocalls that are initiated from outside the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has recently expanded on the existing domestic stir shaken solutions to now include internationally originated calls terminating into the US and US gateway providers must now take … [visit site to read more]