By 2023, Nearly Half of All Mobile Data Traffic in the US Will Be 5G
According to the latest Ericsson Mobility Report, 20 percent of global mobile data traffic will be on 5G networks in 2023, led by North American uptake with 48 percent as US carriers like AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon charge toward 5G deployment.
By Rob Marvin
5G is coming, but it may not be here as fast as you think. By the end of this year and early 2019, phone carriers and telco infrastructure providers will begin rolling out 5G networks to power a new generation of telecommunication, where millions upon millions of Internet of Things devices, self-driving cars, and beyond will connect and interact with network infrastructure in real time.
The bigger question now is not when we'll begin to see 5G tech, but when widespread deployment will unlock the connected future we've been promised. Ericsson, along with Nokia and Huawei, is one of the world's biggest suppliers of the 5G-enabled hardare and software needed to run next-gen networks. For this edition of The Why Axis, PCMag got a look at the latest Ericsson Mobility Report charting the next five years of 5G evolution.
The dense report covers a wide array of mobile trends, but the most telling chart is the one embedded above. According to Ericsson (which aggregates historical data and analyst reports validated against its internal network data and research by Ericsson Consumer & IndustryLab), 20 percent of global mobile data traffic will be on 5G networks by 2023. The Ericsson Mobility Report projects that North America will lead the 5G uptake due to the impending rollout from its major mobile carriers, and by the end of 2023 Ericsson forecasts that close to half (48 percent) of all mobile traffic in North America will be on 5G networks.
We recently spoke to Ericsson CTO Erik Ekudden about what goes into rolling out 5G, and he said 5G deployment will be a gradual migration over the next 3-5 years. Next to North America, Ericsson projects Northeast Asia will have 34 percent of mobile traffic on 5G by 2023, followed by Western Europe at 21 percent. The report breakdown explains that these three regions have not only the most developed economies, but currently hold the highest shares of LTE network subscriptions. This creates a ripe environment for higher adoption rates for new information and communications tech.
Ultimately, Ericsson forecasts that the global 5G rollout underpin a more important shift: by 2023, the report projects there will by 3.5 billion IoT cellular connections worldwide.
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About Rob Marvin
Rob Marvin is PCMag's Associate Features Editor. He writes features, news, and trend stories on all manner of emerging technologies. Beats include: startups, business and venture capital, blockchain and cryptocurrencies, AI, augmented and virtual reality, IoT and automation, legal cannabis tech, social media, streaming, security, mobile commerce, M&A, and entertainment. Rob was previously Assistant Editor and Associate Editor in PCMag's Business section. Prior to that, he served as an editor at SD Times. He graduated from Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. You can also find his business and tech coverage on Entrepreneur and Fox Business. Rob is also an unabashed nerd who does occasional entertainment writing for Geek.com on movies, TV, and culture. Once a year you can find him on a couch with friends marathoning The Lord of the Rings trilogy--extended editions. Follow Rob on Twitter at @rjmarvin1.
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