5G will generate $7 trillion by 2030, apparently

According to a report the adoption of 5G is outpacing all previous generations of mobile technology, and it will create $7 trillion worth of economic value in 2030.

The research from InterDigital and ABI Research claims the exceedingly large amount of coin will be generated as 5G ‘fuels a proliferation of connected devices from smartphones to consumer electronics to enterprise applications and beyond.’

The research points to applications such as AR/VR and immersive content, enterprise enabling features like including low latency, deterministic networking, and advanced Internet of use cases.

5G can feel like it has been slow to get off the blocks in terms of the impact registered on wider society, but the report reckons the adoption of 5G is outpacing all previous generations of mobile technology in terms of subscription rate and operator rollout, and is gaining significant traction from the enterprise world.

The ‘private 5G addressable market’ is expected to grow at a rate of knots, mostly driven by the energy and utilities, healthcare and manufacturing sectors. The report also claims 5G will support the roll-out of digital spaces, smart cities and smart public services, but that governments and local authorities need ‘remove the barriers to ubiquitous 5G access.’

It cites the next stages of 5G will see more activity and innovation around the areas of AI, non-terrestrial networks, MIMO enhancements, unmanned aerial vehicles, and reduced capacity devices.

“The time we live in is an exciting inflection point for 5G and the way telecommunications networks are built and consumed,” said Rajesh Pankaj, Chief Technology Officer at InterDigital. “As 5G deploys across the world, it’s helping to solve fundamental challenges, and laying the foundation for experimentation, new ideas, and innovation. At the same time, 3GPP and the 5G supply chain are continuously working to progress 5G even further. The early years of 5G have been foundational to its long-term success. Now is the time when we will experience and benefit from exciting new applications, new use cases and many more ways consumer lifestyles can be transformed.”

Dimitris Mavrakis, Senior Research Director at ABI Research added: “5G is now giving us a glimpse of what will be possible in the future and setting the foundation for the next generation of networks. The high capacity, high reliability and low latency capabilities of 5G are now starting to create the next wave of consumer and enterprise applications, in the very same way 4G seeded the creation of social networks, the collaborative economy and rich content. We are now in a very exciting technical era that will pave the way for 6G and future networks”.

It’s probably harder than these sorts of studies make out to predict with any exactitude how much a particular generation of connectivity tech is generating into the wider economy, as indeed it would be for any one cog in a tech ecosystem. But the implication is that once the plethora of promised 5G enabled fun arrives, it’ll start raining money for those in the business.

There would appear to be some way to go from where we are now to the promised $7 trillion cash mountain. Unless you are immersed in the sector it’s not hyper obvious that 5G is setting the world alight right now. B2b applications are popping up steadily, particularly in the industrial sector, but on the consumer side it’s not even that noticeable you are getting anything different on a 5G connection compared to a 4G connections.

The really spicy stuff we’ve been promised like mixed reality metaverse worlds, self driving cars, and teched up hospitals that resemble the sickbay on Star Trek, are all only in their nascent states right now, so it’s hard to tell which will end up being money spinners and which will end up being duds. But there’s 8 years to go before 2030 so there’s plenty of time for such predictions of vast riches on the horizon to come to fruition – though by then of course the industry will explaining how much more lucrative 6G is than boring old 5G.

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