5G coverage to reach over half of global population by 2025, says report

Despite the debate sparked in some quarters by the problems believed to be associated with the deployment of 5G, the global 5G network coverage will grow by 253.84 per cent in 2025 reaching about 4.1 billion people as estimates indicate that the figure will be about 53 per cent of the global population, data from the financial comparison has revealed.

The study by the financial comparison site showed that the growth of 5G technology was being driven by several aspects, mainly led by the increasing internet traffic that has come with a rise in the Internet of Things (IoT).

The surge is demanding a resilient network, and Bankr says 5G has the potential of accommodating this growing demand. It added that 5G was able to satisfy the increasing appetite for high-speed mobile broadband that 5G can handle.

The financial comparison made its calculations using a database of regional population and territory distribution based on population density. This was then combined with proprietary data on the installed estate of Ericsson’s Radio Base Stations (RBS) combined with estimated coverage per RBS for each of six population density categories.

According to the research report, with the more realization of 5G technology’s capability, there is continued momentum to upgrade from 4G with global uptake set to continue. The 5G coverage build-out can be divided into radio deployments of new bands in the sub-6GHz range, deployments in millimetre-wave frequency bands, and deployments in existing LTE bands.

Highlighting the challenges to the rolling out 5G technology, the report added: “Although the deployment of 5G faces various challenges, service providers have made progress in addressing major issues like access to the spectrum. The network requires access to several spectrum brands with different attributes.

Spectrum is the radio waves allocated to mobile operators to transmit data. Limited access to different spectrum bands in different locations has been for the slow uptake in some regions.