The early 5G launches in Asia, based on 3GPP Release 15, are expected to focus on enhanced mobile broadband services, supplementing the capacity and capabilities of existing mobile broadband networks, particularly in dense urban areas, the report says. However, 5G’s next phase (3GPP Release 16) is expected to support a range of future 5G use cases and innovations, including massive connectivity and low-latency services such as IoT, critical communication services (e.g. remote surgery, autonomous vehicles, smart grids) and VR.
By 2025, 62 percent of Asia’s mobile connections are expected to run on 4G networks and 14 percent on 5G. More than half of the world’s mobile subscribers live in Asia Pacific, which is home to the world’s two largest mobile markets, China and India. At the end of last year, there were 2.7 billion unique mobile subscribers in Asia, equivalent to about 67 percent of region’s population. This number is forecast to grow to 3.2 billion (73 percent of population) by 2025, with about half of the new subscribers added over this period coming from India.
The Asia Pacific mobile industry reached a USD 1.5 trillion economic contribution in 2017. Mobile’s contribution to Asia’s GDP is expected to increase to USD 1.8 trillion by 2022. In addition, the report also shows that the mobile ecosystem supported more than 17 million jobs last year, directly and indirectly, and made a substantial contribution to the funding of the public sector, with almost USD 170 billion raised in the form of general taxation.
