There will be 150 million 5G subscriptions worldwide by 2021, just one year after the first networks are expected to go live, predicted Ericsson on Tuesday.
"South Korea, Japan, China and the U.S. are predicted to lead with the first, and fastest, 5G subscription uptake," the Swedish kit maker said in a statement.
In order to qualify as a 5G subscription, both the device and the network have to fit Ericsson’s definition of 5G.
Devices must support what Ericsson calls ‘LTE Evolved’ – comprised of enhancements to access technology that use existing mobile spectrum – and/or ‘NX’ – new access technologies that utilise spectrum where LTE has not been previously deployed.
The network must be based on standards that meet the ITU’s IMT-2020 requirements, and support a much wider range of use cases compared to 4G, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Ericsson said.
"For example, Ericsson has built a prototype testbed for applying 5G networking functions and data analytics to public transport, which can save resources, reduce congestion, and lower environmental impact," said Rima Qureshi, chief strategy officer at Ericsson.
"ICT transformation will become even more common across industries as 5G moves from vision to reality in the coming years," she said.
The f irst networks based on official 5G standards are expected to enter commercial service by 2020.
Meanwhile, by 2021, Ericsson predicts overall global mobile subscriptions to reach 9.1 billion from 7.1 billion in 2015. 4G subscriptions will account for 4.1 billion of the total, followed by 3G at 3.2 billion. 2G subscriptions are expected to fall to 1.3 billion from 4 billion in 2015.
Over the same time period, mobile data traffic is forecast to grow by a factor of 10, with video accounting for 70%.
