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According to latest figures by Juniper Research, there will be 240 million active 5G connections by 2025, while revenues will cross the $65 billion (£42.3bn) mark in that year at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 266% between 2020 and 2025.
The technology will gain a premium in comparison to existing ARPU levels on account of its several benefits and features as seen with initial 4G rollouts. Despite the seemingly high number of connections, Juniper warns this will only represent 3% of global mobile connections.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) plans to commercialise 5G by 2020. The organisation will put in place exhaustive technical performance requirements for the radio systems to facilitate 5G by considering the requirements of a comprehensive range of future scenarios and use cases. ITU will also stipulate the evaluation criteria that will gauge candidate interface technologies.
5G is set to offer network speeds of at least 10Gbps and will most likely be launched in the 6-100GHz band, while providing high spectral efficiency, improved latency and system capacity. The technology will also provide robust propagation and cut down on the loss of penetration at higher frequencies. As per the ITU plan, commercialisation will occur only after 2020, with widespread adoption expected by 2025.
Several ‘dumb’ devices will make use of 5G and gain connectivity, bringing about the ‘Internet of Everything’ (IoE) that will run connected devices, appliances, vehicles and key infrastructure in the smart homes and smart cities. Sensors will find themselves in many everyday items as part of IoE and Juniper Research holds that 5G will need new spectrum for service deployment.
