World nears three-quarters of a billion 5G connections

After three full years of growth, global wireless 5G adoption has reached a rapid acceleration phase, touching a noteworthy milestone of 701 million connections by the end of the first quarter of 2022. Omdia data forecast global connections will reach 1.2 billion by the end of this year, said 5G Americas, the wireless industry trade association for the Americas.

According to the most recent data from Omdia, the world added 410 million 5G connections from Q1 2021 to Q1 2022, representing a 141% increase from 291 million to 701 million. Sequentially, there was 17% growth quarter over quarter, from 598 million in Q4 2021 to 701 million in Q1 2022. The forecasts suggest global 5G connections will accelerate again in 2023, approaching 2 billion, and reach 4.8 billion by the end of 2026.

In comparison, 4G LTE is expected to remain the leading wireless cellular technology in Latin America and the Caribbean for now, as Omdia expects 4G LTE growth will remain strong in the region through the end of 2022. In Q1 2022, there were 506 million 4G LTE connections, representing 3.4% quarterly growth with the addition of 16.4 million new LTE subscriptions. That number is expected to reach 535 million, as 5G adoption begins to overtake 4G LTE by the end of 2022.

Overall, the number of 5G commercial networks globally has reached 224, according to data from TeleGeography and 5G Americas. That number is expected to reach 313 by the end of 2022 and 352 by the end of 2024, representing strong 5G network investment growth in many regions throughout the world.

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