5G subscriptions for enhanced mobile broadband to reach 1 billion in 2023

Nov. 30, 2017

The number of 5G subscriptions for enhanced mobile broadband is forecast to reach 1 billion in 2023, according to the November Ericsson Mobility Report. Ericsson also expects that in 2023, 37% of subscriptions in North America will be 5G. The report adds that evolution to 5G will enable a range of new use cases, transforming business processes and leisure time.

As of the third quarter of this year, there are 5 billion mobile broadband subscriptions worldwide, the report says, adding that mobile traffic increased 65% between the third quarter of 2016 and the third quarter

The report adds that as the move toward 5G continues, LTE subscriptions are growing rapidly, and the company anticipates that LTE will be the dominant mobile-access technology by yearend, with 14 Gigabit LTE networks having been commercially launched.

The report offers additional predictions for 2023: VoLTE subscriptions will reach 5.5 billion, global monthly mobile data traffic will surpass 100 EB, there will be 20 billion connected IoT devices, and more than 20% of the world’s population will be covered by 5G.

Read the complete report here.

About the Author

Rick Nelson | Contributing Editor

Rick is currently Contributing Technical Editor. He was Executive Editor for EE in 2011-2018. Previously he served on several publications, including EDN and Vision Systems Design, and has received awards for signed editorials from the American Society of Business Publication Editors. He began as a design engineer at General Electric and Litton Industries and earned a BSEE degree from Penn State.