According to the latest edition of Ericsson's (NASDAQ:ERIC) Mobility Report, 5G wireless is expected to reach more than 40% global population coverage and 1.5 billion subscriptions by the end of 2024.
Drivers for 5G deployment include increased network capacity, lower cost per gigabyte and new use case requirements, Ericsson says.
North America and northeast Asia are expected to lead the 5G uptake. In North America, 5G subscriptions are forecast to account for 55%t of mobile subscriptions by the end of 2024. In northeast Asia, the corresponding forecast figure is more than 43%.
In western Europe, 5G is forecast to account for some 30% of mobile subscriptions in the region by end of 2024.
Of the 4.1 billion cellular IoT connections forecast for 2024, northeast Asia is expected to account for 2.7 billion, a figure reflecting both the ambition and size of the cellular IoT market in the region.
Mobile data traffic in Q3 2018 grew close to 79% year-on-year, which is the highest rate since 2013. Increased data-traffic-per-smartphone in northeast Asia - mainly in China - has pushed the global figure notably higher. With traffic growth per smartphone of around 140% between end 2017 and end 2018, the region has the second highest data traffic per smartphone at 7.3 GB per month.
North America still has the highest data traffic per smartphone, set to reach 8.6 GB per month by the end of this year.
Between 2018-2024, total mobile data traffic is expected to increase by a factor of five, with 5G networks projected to carry 25% of mobile traffic by the end of the period.
Fredrik Jejdling, executive vice president and head of Business Area Networks at Ericsson, said: "As 5G now hits the market, its coverage build-out and uptake in subscriptions are projected to be faster than for previous generations. At the same time, cellular IoT continues to grow strongly. What we are seeing is the start of fundamental changes that will impact not just the consumer market but many industries."