Nigeria benefits as 5G adds $2.2tr to global economy over next 14 years
The 2020 global edition of the GSMA’s flagship ‘Mobile Economy’ report has informed that mobile technologies and services generated 4.7 per cent of GDP globally in 2019, a contribution that amounted to $4.1 trillion of economic value-added. This contribution is forecast to grow to $4.9 trillion (4.9 per cent of GDP) by 2024 as countries around the globe including Nigeria, increasingly benefit from the improvements in productivity and efficiency brought about by increased take-up of mobile services.
The mobile ecosystem also supported more than 30 million jobs in 2019 (directly and indirectly). It made a substantial contribution to the funding of the public sector, with $490 billion raised through general taxation.
5G is forecast to contribute $2.2 trillion to the global economy by 2034, with key industries such as manufacturing, utilities, and professional and financial services benefitting the most from the new technology.
The new report ‘The Mobile Economy 2020’ is authored by GSMA Intelligence, the research and consulting arm of the GSMA.
The report informed that 5G has gained significant traction over the past year and is now live in 24 markets worldwide, supported by an expanding roster of 5G devices and growing awareness among consumers.
GSMA informed that 46 operators in 24 markets had launched commercially available 5G networks by January 30, 2020. It stressed that one in five mobile connections are forecast to be running on 5G networks by 2025.
Director-General of the GSMA, Mats Granryd, said the mobile operator worldwide investment forecast will be more than a trillion dollars over the coming years, focused on rolling out advanced networks to serve both consumer and enterprise customers.
“Over the last 12 months we have seen the 5G ‘hype’ make way for reality: millions of consumers are already migrating to 5G, while enterprises are beginning to embrace 5G-enabled network slicing, edge computing and low-latency services,” he stated.
The new report reveals that 5G has arrived, but 4G is still king. According to it, 4G was the world’s dominant mobile technology last year, supporting more than half (52 per cent) of global connections. Despite the emergence of 5G, 4G will continue to grow over the coming years, increasing to account for 56 per cent of connections by 2025.
GSMA noted that the industry is investing heavily in 5G. It stressed that mobile operators are expected to spend $1.1 trillion worldwide between 2020 and 2025 in mobile CAPEX, roughly 80 per cent of which will be on 5G networks.
Further analysis of the report claimed that the Smartphone is becoming ubiquitous. Smartphones are forecast to account for four of every five connections by 2025, up from 65 per cent in 2019.
IoT will be an integral part of the 5G era: Between 2019 and 2025, the number of global IoT connections will more than double to almost 25 billion, while global IoT revenue will more than triple to $1.1 trillion.
Subscriber growth is slowing, but the industry still has people to connect: The number of unique mobile subscribers at the end of last year stood at 5.2 billion (67 per cent of the population) and is forecast to grow to 5.8 billion by 2025 (70 per cent).
Half the planet connected to the mobile Internet: Almost half of the global populations (3.8 billion people) are now mobile internet users, forecast to reach 61 per cent (5 billion) by 2025.
