5G network infrastructure market will be worth $4.2 billion next year

Vodafone New Zealand signs 5G network deal with Nokia
5G will be launched in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Queenstown later this year.

The global 5G market is expected to rise in value to $4.2 billion by the end of 2020 as broadband providers invest in the infrastructure necessary to roll out the next-generation wireless technology. 

On Thursday, Gartner said the 5G network infrastructure market will increase from an estimated $2.2 billion of revenue in 2019 to $4.2 billion, a rise of 89 percent in only 12 months. 

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According to the research agency, communications service providers (CSPs) are beginning to invest in 5G New Radio (5G NR) and over the course of 2019 this accounted for roughly six percent of total revenue — but this figure is expected to double in 2020.

 “For 5G deployments in 2019, CSPs are using non-stand-alone technology,” said Sylvain Fabre, senior research director at Gartner. “This enables them to introduce 5G services that run more quickly, as 5G New Radio (NR) equipment can be rolled out alongside existing 4G core network infrastructure.”

5G rollouts, in small areas and through pilots, are already underway across countries including the US, South Korea, and the UK. However, it is expected that trials will evolve into wider projects next year as CSPs deploy improved 4G networks with 5G technology, 5G NR, and core 5G infrastructure. 

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The consumer market, given our predilection toward high-speed mobile services, streaming, and content uploads, is an important revenue stream for broadband providers. However, as 5G becomes established, Gartner believes the enterprise market will be the main target for new 5G services.

The Internet of Things (IoT), Industry 4.0, cloud services, autonomous technologies, and a trend toward remote working will all be billed as potential use cases for next-generation wireless services. In particular, industrial users are seen as a ripe market segment due to a shift toward private networks, smart factories, self-healing networks, IoT sensors, and network automation. 

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 “It’s still early days for the 5G private-network opportunity, but vendors, regulators, and standards bodies have preparations in place,” said Fabre.

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