5G connections to reach 690 million by 2025 – report

Despite likely fragmentation on the road to 5G, the number of 5G connections is expected to reach 690 million by 2025, says Strategy Analytics.

The number of 5G connections will reach 690 million by 2025, according to a new forecast by Strategy Analytics. This means 5G connections will account for 7 percent of total mobile connections by 2025. “5G network plans have developed well in 2016, driving an ecosystem which will put 7 percent of mobile connections on 5G networks by 2025. China’s 2020 5G launch plans brings it closer to early adopters in the US, South Korea and Japan, who are speeding up progress to meet the broadband access demands from the Olympic Games and competition of non-traditional players. In contrast, European operators are currently paying more attention to opportunities in IoT,” said Guang Yang, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics.

China’s big three state-run telecommunications companies, China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile are indeed planning to invest $45 billion in 5G networks and launch commercial services in 2020, according to China Tech News. The three operators have chosen different vendors for their 5G rollout: China Mobile has a partnership with Ericsson, while China Telecom works with Huawei and China Unicom with ZTE.

Commercial handsets

By 2025, 300 million 5G-ready handsets will have been shipped. Strategy Analytics expects the first 5G handsets to be commercialized in 2020 in South Korea and Japan. More countries, including the U.S., the U.K., Sweden, the U.A.E. and China, should launch 5G handsets in 2021. “By 2022 tens of millions of 5G handsets will be sold, and as a proportion of total handset sales will reach low single digit percentages,” said Ken Hyers, director at Strategy Analytics.

But the first trial 5G handsets should hit the market as early as 2018. These are expected to have typical teething problems such as short battery life, no 4G handover or unstable connectivity. Strategy Analytics is confident that these early issues will largely be solved in time for 5G commercial handsets to be launched in 2020 – with a high price tag.

Speed up 5G standardization and rollout

The analyst firm expects however that fragmentation in the 5G space is likely as operators around the globe are choosing different approaches to 5G. “Significant work is needed to marry the appeal of a unified early 5G standard with the longer term need to support diverse market requirements.  Leading operators such as NTT DoCoMo, SK Telecom, Verizon, AT&T and more cautious European operators are plotting very different 5G paths,” said Strategy Analytics.

In the meantime, operators are multiplying 5G collaborations in order to speed up standardization and rollout. One such alliance is that between Deutsche Telecom and SK Telecom. Both operators announced on Monday they were opening their collaboration to other leading operators and vendors, including AT&T, Huawei, Nokia, Ericsson, Qualcomm and Samsung, in order to “make the vision of a common worldwide standard come true right in time.”

IIoT News Recap: VMWare partners with Dell, PTC on enterprise IoT deployment; Vodafone Australia to trial 5G in the second half of 2016; Sigfox selects MyDevices for enhanced interoperability of IoT connected devices; Today’s forecast: the smart audio market

Enterprise IoT: VMWare partners with Dell, PTC on enterprise IoT deployment

Cloud infrastructure and business mobility provider VMware announced a set of new alliances aiming at making it easier for enterprises to deploy, manage, secure and scale IoT solutions. VMWare’s new IoT partners include Dell, PTC, Deloitte Digital, Bayshore Networks, Intwine Connect and V5 Systems. “IoT is said to be the largest addressable market since the advent of the Internet, and the true potential of IoT has yet to be realized in the enterprise. As a company that has been delivering technology innovations to enterprises for nearly 20 years, we will leverage our core strengths around device management, operational analytics and security to help bring specific IoT offerings to customers,” said Bask Iyer, chief information officer and general manager, IoT, at VMware. “Our work with these companies will be important in helping businesses meet their strategic needs for IoT applications, analytics, hardware and services, ultimately extending their reach from the data center and cloud to the edge.”

5G: Vodafone Australia to trial 5G in the second half of 2016

Vodafone Australia’s CEO Inaki Berroeta announced the operator is to carry out 5G trials in the second half of 2016, Zdnet reports. “At the end of this year, Kevin [Millroy, general manager for Access Network Delivery] will be demonstrating a 5G demo on our network. We will also be looking into narrowband IoT; IoT’s an important part of our business and an important part of Vodafone business worldwide,” Berroeta said.

LPWAN: Sigfox selects MyDevices for enhanced interoperability of IoT connected devices

IoT solutions company MyDevices announced its drag-and-drop IoT project builder platform Cayenne has been selected by Sigfox to provide Sigfox-compliant connected hardware manufacturers with interoperability features as well as the ability to showcase their modules and sensors. “myDevices is a perfect fit for our ecosystem partners of device makers, systems integrators, semiconductor manufacturers and end-users” said Stuart Lodge, executive vice president of sales and partners at Sigfox. “Their agile and easy-to-use IoT project builder and platform enhances our partners’ ability to connect the dots and make IoT a reality for industries including smart city, agriculture, building intelligence, and infrastructure control.”

Today’s forecast: Revenue from smart audio market to triple by 2020

Juniper Research forecasts that the smart audio market will reach a value of $5billion by 2020, more than triple this year’s revenue of $1.4 billion. The growth will be driven by ear-based wearables as well as smart audio devices in the smart home space, including Amazon Echo and Google Home.