Latin America. After three full years of growth, the adoption of wireless 5G worldwide reached a phase of rapid acceleration, touching a remarkable milestone of 701 million connections at the end of the first quarter of 2022. Data from Omdia projects that worldwide connections will be 1.2 billion by the end of this year, stated 5G Americas, the wireless industry association and the voice of 5G and LTE for the Americas.
Chris Pearson, President of 5G Americas, said, "5G continues to be steadily deployed across connected devices, coverage and spectrum across the Americas at the start of a new era of innovation. Customers continue to use mobile communications networks and devices for new flexible work environments and social interactions during this pandemic."
According to the latest data from Omdia, the world added the impressive 410 million 5G connections from Q1 2021 to Q1 2022, representing an increase of 141 percent, from 291 million to 701 million. Subsequently, there was a growth of 17% in one quarter, from 598 million in Q4 2021 to 701 million in Q1 2022. Projections indicate that 5G connections in the world would accelerate again in 2023 to reach 2,000 million, and that by the end of 2026 they would reach 4,800 million.
Omdia Principal Analyst Kristin Paulin said: "Oceania, East and Southeast Asia, and in particular China, continue to drive global trends, with this region accounting for 81.1% of total 5G subscriptions at the close of Q1 2022. It is followed by North America, with the second largest share of 5G subscribers, with 11.7% at the end of Q1 2022."
By region, North America had a total of 82 million 5G connections at the close of Q1 2022, which means adding 12 million 5G connections during that quarter – a gain of 17.7 percent over Q4 2021. A total of 131 million 5G connections are expected to come from North America by the end of 2022. In addition, the region had 509 million LTE connections at the close of Q1 2022, reflecting a beginning of the migration to 5G.
On the other hand, 4G LTE is predicted to continue to be the leading wireless cellular technology in Latin America and the Caribbean for the time being, with a forecast from Omdia indicating that 4G LTE growth will remain strong in the region until the end of 2022. In Q1 2022, there were 506 million 4G LTE connections, representing a quarterly growth of 3.4 percent with the sum of 16.4 million new LTE subscriptions. That figure is expected to reach 535 million as 5G adoption begins to overtake 4G LTE by the end of 2022. Projections indicate that Latin America and the Caribbean will have 28 million 5G connections by the end of 2022, and 307 million by 2026.
According to José Otero, Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean of 5G Americas "The pandemic exacerbated the importance of mobile wireless connectivity in our society. It will be crucial to allocate new radio spectrum for additional new deployments to help the region advance mobile broadband and recover from the economic and social challenges of recent years."
In total, the number of commercial 5G networks stands at 224 in the world, according to data from TeleGeography and 5G Americas. That figure is expected to reach 313 by the end of 2022 and 352 by the end of 2024, representing strong growth in investment in 5G networks in many regions around the world. Below is the number of 5G and 4G LTE network deployments:
5G:
Global: 224
North America: 14
Latin America and the Caribbean: 25
4G LTE:
Global: 703
North America: 19
Latin America and the Caribbean: 130
