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5G Will Cover Roughly 1.5 Billion People By 2024, Researchers Say (cnet.com)

Posted by msmash on from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.

By the end of 2025, 5G will reach more than 40 percent of the world's population and cover 1.5 billion people, according to the latest mobility report [PDF] from telecommunications company Ericsson, which says its networks currently carry nearly half the world's mobile traffic. From the report: 5G, short for fifth-generation network technology, promises a massive boost in speed and responsiveness. Industry watchers expect the first 5G smartphones to come out in the first half of next year. Researchers forecast that mobile data consumption will reach more than 21GB per month by 2024, which is nearly four times the consumption in 2018. 5G networks will carry 25 percent of global mobile data traffic, according to Ericsson. North America and North East Asia are expected to lead the 5G rollout, followed by Western Europe.

43 comments

  1. quicker to use up your allowed unlimited data by rtowne72 · · Score: 0

    Unless something changes, the unlimited plans will only get used up quicker. I live in a Hole where wireless technology is the only option I have unless you say dial up is an option. We use Verizon for our streaming purposes and with 4G we eat up data fairly quickly which hits the data cap and then we are at the algorithms mercy for the rest of the month. Sometimes we can stream, other times we surfing is a challenge. So 5G may allow the plans to increase the data limit, but you will still get there quicker, so how does that help me. I know the universe revolves around me, I have known that for some time.

    1. Re:quicker to use up your allowed unlimited data by treymichaelcook · · Score: 1

      Sounds you should hope Starlink gets up and running correctly.

    2. Re:quicker to use up your allowed unlimited data by AnonyMouseCowWard · · Score: 1

      There's a difference between network speed and data usage/bandwidth though? Like... with low speed (e.g., 3G) you can still use massive data, it just takes longer to do so. Unless files start taking more space (e.g., 4K streaming instead of normal 720p), there's no reason for your data consumption to change between 4G and 5G. 5G is all-in-all a net benefit (assuming a constant consumer price).

  2. Great, so now I can.... by supremebob · · Score: 0

    Use up my "unlimited" (5GB invisible data cap) data in 5 minutes instead of 30 and have my download speeds throttled to 3G speeds for the rest of the month even faster.

    1. Re:Great, so now I can.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      What the fuck are you doing that uses that much data? I have 5 GB data cap and I only use 1-2 GB in a month, I never come close to using all of it.

    2. Re:Great, so now I can.... by amorsen · · Score: 1

      How can 5GB be sold as "unlimited"?

      On the other hand, being throttled to 40Mbps (3G speed) isn't THAT terrible.

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    3. Re:Great, so now I can.... by sims+2 · · Score: 1

      Verizon considers 3G speed to be 600kbps.

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    4. Re: Great, so now I can.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does it matter? Wireless prices are at quite the premium. If consumers use all of the product then who cares?

      5gb in a 30 day period is fairly easy to blow through if you do not supplement your usage with WiFi.

    5. Re:Great, so now I can.... by amorsen · · Score: 1

      That's 2G speed...

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    6. Re: Great, so now I can.... by c6gunner · · Score: 1

      5gb in a 30 day period is fairly easy to blow through if you do not supplement your usage with WiFi.

      I got a 10 GB data plan while traveling, because it was cheap. Didn't bother using WiFi at all since I figured I had plenty of data. After a month of use I had only gone through 3.7 GB.

    7. Re:Great, so now I can.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What company do you use that considers 5GB unlimited? I honestly do not believe you.

    8. Re:Great, so now I can.... by supremebob · · Score: 1

      MetroPCS did up until recently, as did Straight Talk. I'd imagine that their are others that still do so.

  3. In a world of 9 Billion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In a world of 9 Billion people, this is not good. Humanity needs to be more resistant to deepening the divide between the haves and the have-nots.

    1. Re:In a world of 9 Billion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In a world of 9 Billion people, this is not good. Humanity needs to be more resistant to deepening the divide between the haves and the have-nots.

      Look at the bright side, with 5G we will have all new forms of cancer that will kill a bunch of us off.

    2. Re:In a world of 9 Billion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That certainly needs to happen if we are to survive climate change.

    3. Re:In a world of 9 Billion by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      I don't think we'll hit 9 billion by 2024 will we? Maybe 8 billion. Regardless, I see 1.5 Billion covered as a "glass over 75% empty" scenario.

      --
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  4. Math? by darthsilun · · Score: 1

    40% of 7.6B is 3B according to my trusty calculator. Is it going to reach 3B or 1.5B ?
    Asking for a friend.

    1. Re:Math? by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 3, Insightful

      40% of 7.6B is 3B according to my trusty calculator. Is it going to reach 3B or 1.5B ?

      Read between the lines! They are saying that they are going to kill about 4 billion people by 2024. I don't know who they are targeting but this Earth show just got a whole lot more exciting! ;)

      --
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    2. Re:Math? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In communications jargon, reach means "is accessible to in some areas", while cover means "is accessible to in all areas".
      It's the distinction of "will I have dead spots in my house" and "will I have a place I can use it somewhere in my neighborhood".

    3. Re:Math? by zarmanto · · Score: 1

      ... they are going to kill about 4 billion people by 2024. I don't know who they are targeting ...

      Come now; don't be so paranoid... nobody is going to intentionally kill all of those people. Clearly, they're all going to die from a new and highly malignant/fast moving form of cancer. That cancer will be induced by a new wave of 5G wireless devices, as their incredibly efficient death waves pummel every cell of our bodies every second of every day. And of course, by the time those who are left figure it all out, it'll be far too late to do anything about it... and it'll all come to pass shortly before we all recognize that the machine uprising has already taken place. And you will welcome your new robot overlords... because if you don't, they'll turn the 5G signals up to eleven in your immediate vicinity, transmuting you into a messy puddle of goo within a matter of weeks.

      Huh. Alright... maybe you can go ahead and be paranoid, after all. /s

      7&**gh_`7dsfd+3((&^/.... NO CARRIER.

  5. Already obsolete anyway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    https://www.networkworld.com/article/3285112/mobile-wireless/get-ready-for-upcoming-6g-wireless-too.html

  6. 5G not here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    5G will be everywhere except the USA. We'll get 5G LITE.

    1. Re:5G not here by reboot246 · · Score: 1

      I was in an area yesterday that had absolutely no cell service at all, and I'm not talking about being out in the wilderness. I was parked right outside of a doctor's office! Plus, I go a lot of places where all I can get is plain old 3G or even less.

    2. Re:5G not here by sims+2 · · Score: 1

      So far it looks like we are getting the better flavor of 5G this time https://venturebeat.com/2018/1...

      The UK seems to be getting something that's targeting 100Mbps while the early installs here in the USA are already doing near gigabit with a 300Mbps standard target.

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    3. Re:5G not here by supremebob · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I'd imagine that AT&T will pull a similar stunt to what they did a few years ago, and rebrand their newer 4G LTE Advanced phones as "5G" until they get a chance to expand their "real" 5G network.

    4. Re:5G not here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      5G will be everywhere except the USA. We'll get 5G LITE.

      I won't, because I don't live in a big city.

    5. Re:5G not here by Miamicanes · · Score: 1

      Or worse, they'll deploy 5G radio technology that only works on a few AT&T-branded phones, without meaningfully increasing the amount of fiber backhaul available to back up the new RF bandwidth.

      It's kind of like if you had 50 people connected to an 802.11ac access point, but the access point itself were connected to a DSL modem with bottom-tier service.

      Except... it's actually worse. At least with the 802.11ac access point, users on the same LAN could get 100+mbps speeds peer to peer with each other, regardless of how fast or slow the internet connectivity is, because the local access point is (usually) smart enough to RECOGNIZE traffic that doesn't really have to touch "the internet" itself. AFAIK, *no* mobile network even tries to route peer to peer traffic among users connected to the same tower site directly (without involving a round trip to the off-site data center), so EVERYTHING ends up being backhaul-constrained, even when there's technically local wireless bandwidth to burn.

  7. Re: The is no 5-G in prison. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes it would be complaining about Facebook instead of just letting Facebook be Facebook. After all, if Facebook has a policy today that it does not have tomorrow, it will still have had that policy to orrow even if it doesnâ(TM)t currently have that policy tomorrow - their problem

  8. The issue is obsolete! by spiritplumber · · Score: 0
    Don't you know that we can now just edit this out of reality by declaring it fake news and talking about how fake it is for a long time very loudly?

    /sarc

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  9. 10G Will Cover Roughly 1.5 Trillion People By 2112 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    100G Will Cover Roughly 1.5 Trillion People By 2112 ...or...

    2.5G Will Cover Roughly 1.5 Million People By 2112 (if we don't stop killing each other, and our science programs don't keep going backwards)

  10. So 10-20% of the largest US cities by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But Frontier are other telcos will still gladly offer dialup and their "high-speed" 6mbps DSL because they have no incentive to do anything but bleed money off the taxpayers from government grants without enough oversight and customers that either don't know better or have no alternative

  11. cancer time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    terahertz frequencies in short distances passing through human beings is not a good idea

    captcha: disrupts

    1. Re:cancer time by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      All that matters is the signal strength. Current phones would fry your brain, too, if they operated at 500 Watts like your microwave oven.

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  12. Still won't be available at my house by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sigh.

    1. Re:Still won't be available at my house by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femtocell

  13. Higher frequency means more tissue damage? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Lower power probably yes, but holding higher frequencies to your head doesn't sound like a hot idea. Remember the 70s cop radar gun days.

  14. By 2025 by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 1

    By 2025 and they've rolled out 5G to 40% of the population they'll have just finished the spec for 7G and 6G will have been rolling out for a couple of years already.