Report: 5G subs top 1bn
February 24, 2023
Some 136 million 5G subscriptions were added globally between October and December 2022, bringing the total to just above one billion, according to the Q4 2022 update of the full edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report, published in November 2022.
At the close of 2022, 235 communications service providers (CSPs) had launched commercial 5G services. About 35 CSPs have deployed or launched 5G standalone (SA) networks.
Among other statistics, the Q4 update shows:
- There were more than 8.4 billion mobile subscriptions at the close of 2022 – a net addition of 39 million between October-December 2022.
- Nigeria accounted for the most mobile subscriptions net additions between October-December 2022, accounting for more than four million. More than four million were also added in the Philippines and more than three million in
- There were about 6.1 billion unique mobile subscribers at the close 2022.
- Mobile broadband accounts for about 86 per cent of all mobile subscriptions.
- Mobile network data traffic grew 40 per cent between Q4 2021 and Q4 2022, reaching 118 EB (exabytes) per month.
- There was a ten per cent quarter-on-quarter mobile network data traffic growth between Q3 2022 and Q4 2022.
- Mobile network data traffic has doubled in just two years.
- 4G subscriptions increased by 36 million from October-end of December 2022 to around 5.1 billion, representing 60 per cent of all mobile subscriptions
- WCDMA/HSPA subscriptions fell by 89 million during Q4, 2022, while GSM/EDGE-only subscriptions dropped by 40 million during the same period.