Despite fake news, it accelerates the development of 5G networks

Ericsson estimates an increase in subscriptions by the end of the year, to 190 million worldwide. The boost also comes from new, less expensive smartphones A 5G antenna (photo by Artur Widak / NurPhoto via Getty Images) The global number of subscriptions to 5G, the new generation of mobile connections, could reach 190 million by end of 2020. The estimate is from Ericsson. In its latest Mobility report, the telecommunications company, which has signed more than 93 between 5G agreements and commercial contracts with unique operators globally, calculates that, if the growth of 5G subscriptions in some markets has slowed down due to the pandemic In others, coronavirus has seen an increase, prompting to revise upwards the forecasts for the end of 2020 relating to subscriptions to fifth generation mobile networks globally. They will become 2.8 billion by the end of 2025.

“In addition to measuring the success of 5G through the number of subscriptions, the real impact of this technology will be assessed on the basis of the benefits it will bring to people and businesses. ”, Observes executive vice president and chief of Ericsson Networks, Fredrik Jejdling.



The Italian case shows this. During the pandemic, misinformation fueled by fake news and conspiracy theories exacerbated the distrust of some people towards 5G, so much so that, as Wired documented, the Municipalities that banned installations increased (from 53 to 262). Overall, however, highlights the Ericsson report, the majority approach is positive, although inferior to other countries. The survey shows that 53% of Italians believe that 5G could have played a positive role during the crisis (63% in other countries), while 35% would like coverage to be implemented much faster to benefit from faster speeds than fixed network.

In the race to greater digitization, Ericsson also highlights the growth in connections to broadband wireless (Fixed Wireless Access, Fwa), who will share 160 million by the end of 2025. For the same data on the networks of 5G will move almost half (45%) of the data traffic the worldwide mobile networks. The networks of the fifth generation are on the rise: 75 operators have launched their commercial offers and coverage, which in 2019, reached the 5% of the world population, at the end of 2025 will reach 65%. To push the market there are also smartphones enabled for the 5G, a hundred models already available. In the second half of 2020, it is expected that prices will drop to 300-400 dollars per unit , reaching then the bands open.

If the traffic global data on Fwa by the end of 2019 was estimated to be around 15% of the traffic in the world, with the advent of new technologies, such as those related to the internet signal from space , experts estimate an increase of almost 8 times the traffic that will, in 2025, the 53 exabytes (we are talking of numbers in the order of trillions of bytes), equal to approximately 25% of the total traffic of global data.