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A recent report released by Ericsson has shown that although there is a high rate of mobile broadband penetration in the Africa region, especially in Nigeria and South Africa, the Sub-Saran Africa market is likely to get only about two million 5G subscriptions out of the expected one billion global subscriptions by 2023.
The November edition of Ericsson mobility report suggests that North America will be leading with 37 percent of the global 5G subscriptions, followed by North East Asia with 34 percent and then Western Europe with 16 percent of the global 5G subscriptions by 2023.
Expected to be deployed first in dense urban areas, 5G will cover over 20 percent of the world’s population by the end of 2023. The first commercial networks based on 5G New Radio (NR) are expected to go live in 2019, with major deployments from 2020. Early 5G deployments are foreseen in several markets, including the US, South Korea, Japan and China.
Explaining the findings to members of the press via video call at the Ericsson head office in Lagos, Niklas Heuveldop who is the Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Technology and Emerging Business, Ericsson, said:
“The latest report highlights trends in mobile subscription and data traffic growth, as well as the industry’s effort to tackle the increasing demands on mobile networks globally. In addition, the report examines the emergence of new use cases as network capabilities evolve – smartwatches, IoT alarms, and augmented reality-assisted maintenance and repair, to name a few. As we prepare for 5G, these trends will continue to set the agenda for the mobile industry going forward.”
The increased adoption and necessity of internet access and broadband cannot be over- emphasised as subscriptions associated with smartphones now account for 57 percent of all phone subscriptions in the world and around 400 million smartphones were sold in the third quarter of 2017, which equates to 83 percent of all mobile phones sold in Q3.
According to the report, mobile data traffic is expected to surge by eight times during the forecast period, reaching 110 Exabytes per month by 2023. This corresponds to 5.5 million years of HD video streaming.
All regions maintain mobile data traffic growth, with North America showing the highest average usage per smartphone, exceeding 7GB per month by the end of 2017.
Video consumption continues to fuel mobile broadband traffic growth. The driving forces behind video’s uptrend are the young millennial – those in the 15 to 24 age bracket – who stream more than those over 45 years of age.
Streaming video in higher resolutions and an emerging trend of increased streaming of immersive video formats, such as 360-degree video, will have an impact on data traffic consumption volumes. For example, a YouTube 360-degree video uses 4 to 5 times as much bandwidth as a normal YouTube video of the same perceived quality.
Experts say that the low percentage of 5G adoption in Sub Saharan Africa by 2023 is bad for Nigeria which is said to be a mobile first nation, as the country has a more youthful population and the report suggests that 5G is tilting towards meeting the needs of the millennial.
“Less than half of millennial smartphone users say their mobile broadband quality expectations have been met and over 30 percent of millennial smartphone users name a factor beyond better coverage and speed as their most important 5G expectation,” the report states.
Jumoke Akiyode- Lawanson
