5G is expected to have almost 400 million connections worldwide: Report

Globally LTE connections grew by more than one billion connections from June 2017 to June 2018 with a growth rate of 43 percent, according to a statement issued by 5G Americas citing Ovum data.

It said that the LTE market share compared to all other mobile wireless technologies achieved 42.3 percent at the end of the second quarter of 2018 with a global total of 3.6 billion LTE connections.

The data predicted that LTE is expected to reach over 5.6 billion connections in 2022 at which time LTE market share will stand at 60 percent while 5G is expected to accumulate connections starting in late 2018 and by 2022, it is forecast to have almost 400 million connections worldwide.

Globally, total mobile connections grew by 6 percent in the year to the second quarter of 2018, while LTE connections grew a stronger 43 percent during this time," stated Kristin Paulin, Senior Analyst, Ovum. "This substantial LTE foundation leads to the anticipation that soon we will start to see 5G make inroads."

Here are the highlights of the data

3.6 billion LTE connections out of a total of 8.5 billion total cellular connections worldwide.
1.1 billion new LTE subscriptions year-over-year from 2Q 2017; 42.3 percent growth.
LTE connections forecast to reach 5.6 billion by year-end 2022 (forecast includes M2M).
LTE global market share forecast to reach 60.3 percent by year-end 2022.
5G is forecast to reach 400 million connections by the end of 2022.

Meanwhile, Latin America and the Caribbean added 82 million new LTE subscriptions with 52 percent growth year over year from June 2017. At the end of the second quarter, there were nearly 241 million LTE connections in the Latin America region on commercial LTE networks across all countries.

North America remains the world region with the largest market share for LTE at 77 percent and 376 million LTE connections. These are exciting days for North America as the early commercial realization of 5G technology is just around the corner," remarked Chris Pearson, President of 5G Americas. "At the same time, the U.S. and Canadian service providers are heavily invested in the innovation roadmap of LTE to deliver tremendous throughput speeds and coverage as the foundation for future 5G networks."

LTE achieved a penetration rate over 103 percent with 376 million connections compared to the population of 365 million in North America. This penetration rate compares to the next two highest regions, Oceania, Eastern and Southeastern Asia at 88 percent and Western Europe at 66 percent.