Ericsson Mobility Reportericsson.com/ mobility-reportNovember 20232Ericsson Mobility Report | November 2023Letter from the publisher5G standalone brings new opportunitiesContentsExecutive Editor: Peter JonssonProject Sponsor: Patrik CerwallProject Manager: Anette Lundvall Forecasts: David von KochWriter Editor: Steven Davis Co-writers: Ruchika Batra, Greger Blennerud, Fredrik Burstedt, Anders Carlsson P, Sebastian Elmgren, Josip Jelic, Doroteja Kobescak, Ivan Komljenovic, Fredric Kronestedt, Christian Kuhlins, Per Lindberg, Jun Ying Liu, Nina Lövehagen, Geoffrey Macharia, Jens Malmodin, Seda Onay, Ravi Shekhar Pandey, Tomislav Tolic, Jeff Travers, Björn TrollsåsContributors from Jio: Jawad Manssour, Rajeev Saluja, Radhey Shyam SardaForecastsArticles04 5G mobile subscriptions to exceed 5.3 billion in 202905 5G adoption continues, despite weak smartphone market06 5G subscriptions rising in every region08 Sub-Saharan Africa: A closer look10 Mobile network data traffic still climbing11 Growth in percent falls, while data traffic rises12 5G set to account for 25 percent of mobile data traffic this year14 Uplink traffic dominated by communication and cloud-storage services16 Leveraging 5G capacity in mobile service packages18 Cellular IoT connections expected to reach 3 billion in 202319 RedCap 5G NR expands Broadband IoT possibilities20 5G FWA service provider adoption reaches 50 percent22 5G mid-band population coverage reaches 30 percent at the end of 202323 ICT sector’s footprint stable despite more subscribers and data usage25 Large-scale 5G SA deployment to drive digital transformation in India29 Demand for indoor connectivity driving the need for enhanced performance 33 5G-enabled agility in gigafactories and green steel plants36 Methodology37 Glossary38 Global and regional key figuresContinued strong uptake of 5G, with around 600 million new subscriptions added globally during 2023, shows that demand for high-performance connectivity remains resilient in the face of ongoing economic challenges and geopolitical unrest in some markets.The majority of networks deployed so far are 5G non-standalone, but an increasing number of communications service providers are deploying 5G standalone (SA). It offers greater possibilities to support new and more demanding use cases for both consumers and enterprises. Only with standalone architecture can 5G use cases requiring time-bound latency, higher speeds, capacity or benefits from network slicing be achieved. To date, more than 40 service providers have deployed or launched 5G SA in public networks.5G deployment is far from complete. Further densification of 5G mid-band sites is needed for the full 5G experience. By the end of 2023, it’s estimated that 5G mid-band will be deployed in around 30 percent of existing 4G sites globally.In this edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report, we take a closer look at a large-scale deployment ...
