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South Korea and China Lead 5G Network Growth

The fifth-generation (5G) wireless cellular technologies are being deployed by mobile network operators. 5G is enabling use cases in business sectors such as healthcare, automotive industries, smart cities, and mobile broadband.

Juniper Research anticipates that over 64 percent of global 5G connections will be in the Far East and China. This is due to the early launches in South Korea by all Tier-1 network operators, which were followed by significant launches of commercial 5G networks in China.

 5G-based Wireless Market Development

According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, mobile network operator‑billed 5G service revenue will reach $315 billion in 2023 -- that's rising from $195 billion in 2022.

This represents growth of over 60 percent in a single year. The study findings predict this increase in revenue will be driven by the accelerating migration of cellular subscriptions to 5G networks.

This is due to network operator strategies that minimize or remove any premium over existing 4G subscription offerings. Juniper now forecasts that over 600 million new 5G subscriptions will be created next year, despite the anticipated economic downturn in 2023.

Juniper analysts also predict that the rapid growth of 5G networks will continue, and over 80 percent of global operator‑billed revenue will be attributable to 5G connections by 2027.

Moreover, the telecom industry demonstrated its robustness against the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic, and Juniper anticipates that the growth of 5G will also be resilient against this economic downturn, owing to the vital importance of mobile Internet access.

"Despite the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), revenue from consumer connections will continue to be the cornerstone of 5G operator revenue increase," said Olivia Williams, research analyst at Juniper Research.

According to the Juniper assessment, over 95 percent of global 5G connections in 2027 will be connected personal devices -- such as smartphones, media tablets, and mobile broadband routers.

In addition, Juniper's analysts say that the ability of standalone 5G networks to offer network slicing will act as the ideal platform for the growth of 5G private network applications and associated revenue.

Outlook for 5G Network Applications Growth

Standalone 5G uses next‑generation core networks supporting network slicing technology, which can be used to take a ‘slice’ of public 5G infrastructure and provide it to private network users.

In turn, this helps mitigate the cost of private 5G network hardware and increase its overall value proposition, all against a background of deteriorating macroeconomic conditions.

That said, I believe we will start to see more distributed workforce applications for 5G technologies, as more organizations adopt flexible working models to retain their high-value employee talent.

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