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.”