April 12, 2023
5G connections jumped 76% in 2022, with another 455 million connections added globally, according to data from Omdia and 5G Americas. Global 5G wireless connections reached up to 1.05 billion at the end of 2022.
This fast growth will stay strong for the next several years, with global 5G connections forecast to continue their acceleration in 2023, approaching 2 billion this year and reaching 5.9 billion by the end of 2027.
The climb from 922 million in Q3 2022 to 1.05 billion in Q4 2022 is representative of 14 percent sequential quarterly growth.
North America leads the world in adding wireless 5G connections, logging a total of 119 million 5G and 507 million LTE connections by the end of the fourth quarter of 2022. The region added 52 million 5G connections for the year, and nearly a third (32%) of the population now has access to 5G.
Omdia and 5G Americas predict there will be 215 million 5G connections in North America by the close of 2023.