Elite Group promotes Rob Sims to board
He was CEO of Nexus Telecommunications before joining Elite as part of the acquisition
Manny Pham
April 9, 2018
Europe is expected to be left behind in the race for 5G as US and China lead the way
CCS Insight has released the latest 5G forecast with the US and China expected to lead the way in these markets as Europe is projected to languish behind.
Projected figures reveal there will be 280 million 5G connections by 2021, with it expected to grow to 2.7 billion by 2025. CCS expects a billion connections to be reached by 2023.
It is estimated by 2020 total global connections will be at almost 60 million with a 25 per cent increase by 2021 according to CCS Insight.
With plans to roll out 5G to commercial services in the US as early as this year, it is anticipated that China will take control of 5G by 2020. CCS Insight project by 2021 there will be 100 million connections in China and one billion by 2025, which will account for almost four in 10 global 5G connections.
CCS Insight principal analyst covering operators Kester Mann said: “The industry might be struggling to establish the business models for investment in 5G, but this isn’t stopping leading operators battling for bragging rights to launch the first networks.”
However forecasts for Europe reveal the amount of 5G connections expected is considerably less with 100 million by 2023. With the US and China projected to lead with 5G, the European market has been hindered due to a number of reasons including: market fragmentation, lack of scale, an increase in regulations and also a strong focus on 4G networks from operators.
The first 5G smartphones are coming into circulation in 2019 as CCS Insight vice president Marina Koytcheva said: “We see the first 5G smartphones emerging in 2019, but these will be relatively few in number. The real ramp up will come in 2021, when over 350 million 5G handsets will be sold worldwide.”