5G in 2024, Industry predictions, & upcoming FWA Forum Plenary
GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association)
The Industry Voice of the Global Mobile Ecosystem
As the year comes to a close the just-released “5G in 2024” snapshot report identified continued investment by mobile operators in 5G networks as well as increased deployment activity in both public and private mobile networks. New mobile and FWA services are being launched by operators and new 5G NTN partnerships formed. We've pulled out the key data points and commentary in our lead article.
Last month, GSA research partner CCS Insight launched its “Predictions: 2025 & beyond” report and, as sponsors, we have an exclusive download link for all GSA members and associates. We’ve picked out our top 10 predictions below but there are a further 83 for you to enjoy. Use the download link at the end of the summary below.
Our last member event of the year, the GSA 4G-5G FWA Forum Plenary, is on Thursday 12th December at 9.00am GMT. Sponsored by Poynting and START, the agenda will see operators, including DITO from the Philippines, and FWA ecosystem players sharing best practice FWA use cases. A highlight will surely be hearing from DITO about what they learned from completing the deployment of the world's largest RedCap FWA network upgrade. Scroll down to the “Upcoming GSA events” section to register.
And finally, this is our last GSA Monthly Pulse newsletter of the year so I’d like to thank GSA members for their continued support in 2024 and wish you all the very best for the holidays and a very happy new year.
Joe Barrett , President, GSA
2024 has seen continued investment by mobile operators in 5G networks and more devices becoming commercially available. With 5G deployed in both public and private mobile networks, new mobile and FWA services launched by operators and new 5G NTN partnerships formed, 2024 has seen more milestones passed. Dig into the data you need to guide and inform your planning for 2025 and beyond.
GSA has been tracking the roll-out of 5G since the beginning. At the end of 2024, the momentum behind 5G continues, with 624 operators investing in 5G, 55% of which have launched commercial services.
There is 5G investment globally, with very few gaps where there aren't at least 5G trials happening. 184 countries are currently investing in 5G networks - of these, 126 countries have now a commercial deployment of 5G. The most popular spectrum bands, by some margin, are n77 and n78. There is also a lot of activity around the FR2 bands, but not yet in terms of actual commercial deployments.
2024 has seen ongoing launches of new 5G devices - up over 50% year-on-year. The number of 5G devices across all form factors has now reached a total of 2,142 devices, with the proportion of commercially available devices now up to 87.4%. While the split across form factors has remained broadly similar, with phones still dominating there has been some movement in the industrial router and FWA categories. This reflects the rollout of 5G services across all sectors, including consumer, business, industrial and IoT type applications.
While the adoption of 5G Standalone has been slower than general 5G market momentum, it remains the foundation for many of the things the industry has been talking about around 5G, including massive machine-type communications, reliable low-latency and many of the vertical opportunities.
We've seen 151 operators in 63 countries investing in 5G SA, that's 31% of the 624 operators known to be investing in 5G networks. At least 64 operators in 35 countries have now launched 5G SA networks. In addition, 30 operators are currently deploying 5G SA networks, with a further 57 planning to launch.
GSA also tracks private mobile networks in the GAMBoD database, including both dedicated and hybrid deployment models. In terms of technology, there is growth on the 5G side, and in networks where both 4G and 5G are used. LTE is used in the majority (1,172) of the catalogued customers deploying private mobile networks, with 5G being deployed in 46% of references, although limited in real industrial situations. The manufacturing sector dominates 5G customer verticals, and electrical equipment, appliances and components is the largest sub-vertical. GSA data includes both public and confidential customer references, making it the most comprehensive dataset on private mobile network deployments.
In 5G fixed wireless access, GSA data confirms 201 operators are investing in 5G FWA. This includes 169 operators that have launched 3GPP-compliant 5G fixed wireless access services, up from 152 in November 2023. Overall, 5G accounts for 34% of all FWA launched services, up from 26% in November 2023. According to data gathered in this year's FWA CPE vendor survey, conducted by the GSA 4G/5G FWA Forum, FWA 5G shipments grew to 10.2m in 2023, up 18% compared with 2022, reaching a share of 34% of total shipments. By the end of this year, more than 40% of FWA shipments are expected to be 5G-enabled, reaching 15.6m (+53% growth YoY). The majority of vendors surveyed reported that they expect 5G CPE prices will reach parity with those of 4G CPE by 2025. 5G RedCap has a role to play here, enabling vendors to get the overall CPE cost down - perhaps not with the performance of a 'full fat' 5G FWA offering, but still able to tap into the new spectrum and other capabilities.
Finally, 2024 also saw a lot of activity in the area of 5G non-terrestrial networks, with satellite operator partnerships and a new value chain of device manufacturers, software operating system companies and telecom operators. GSA is tracking the types of services being launched, who is doing what, and how it impacts the use of spectrum. Early launches have been either narrowband or based on proprietary solutions. With 3GPP Release-17 onwards, NTN is part of the 5G family,
GSA is tracking all of this data and more in its GAMBoD databases. These unique databases, which can be accessed by ALL employees of EVERY GSA Member and Associate organisation via the GSA website, contain the most up-to-date global data on 4G & 5G Devices, Networks, Technologies, Spectrum and Chipsets. If your organisation is a GSA member or associate, you personally have unlimited access to all this data, and you can use it to create slides and charts to support you in your daily work and planning for the year ahead.
TLDR?
Predictions: 2025 & Beyond
At an event to launch the annual “Predictions” report compiled by GSA’s official research partner CCS Insight, its team of researchers outlined where they believe the mobile telecoms industry is headed. Sponsored by the GSA, the event brought together over 120 leaders from the connected technology industry, to gain exclusive insights from analysts and industry experts.
One of the major talking points at this year’s event was how the advent of standalone 5G and 5G-Advanced means the industry now has an opportunity to realign expectations with reality.
You can download the full CCS Insights Predictions: 2025 & Beyond booklet with all of their 93 predictions below, but here we pull out the ones that most caught our eye.
And finally … in 2027, at least one operator will use the term 6G in its consumer marketing, echoing the 4G and 5G eras, which saw operators attempt to gain marketing advantages before the first networks went live. As the 19th century French novelist Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr may have put it: Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose!
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GSA reports:
Published in November 2024
5G Experience
Based on data from Opensignal, this report assesses global 5G network performance in various metrics, including availability, download and upload speeds, video quality, gaming experience, and consistent quality.
Market Snapshot: Fixed Wireless Access
This report on the global status of the fixed wireless access (FWA) market brings updates about the availability of FWA broadband services based on LTE and 5G; tariff structures; service portability; service speeds and device support for FWA.
5G device ecosystem
Since the previous edition of this report in July, the number of announced 5G devices reached a total of 2,142 devices, with the proportion of commercially available devices now up to 87.4%. Download the report to find out more.
5G chipsets
In 2024, GSA has tracked a 5% growth in the number of 5G NR mobile processors and platforms, along with a 5% rise in 5G modems. Seven major semiconductor companies offer commercially available 5G products. Read the report.
5G Standalone (5G SA)
GSA is tracking the emergence of 5G standalone access networks, including the availability of chipsets and devices for customers, plus the testing and deployment of 5G SA networks by public MNOs and private network operators.
Upcoming GSA events
FWA Forum Plenary
Join the GSA 4G-5G FWA Forum Plenary for this in-depth discussion with operators and the FWA ecosystem as they share their best practice fixed wireless access use cases - including the role of 5G RedCap in FWA deployments.
Speakers and panelists explore the FWA opportunity, the challenges that need to be overcome, and how regulators, mobile operators and the vendor ecosystem can work together to respond.
The agenda of the Plenary includes:
GSA @ Industry Events
We are currently the only academic institution member of GSA because we believe that we are an integral part of the upstream ecosystem, developing novel technologies at physical layer level (of the telecoms stack) for next-gen wireless networks and serving NEPs of the wireless sector.