By 2025, 5G technology will account for 14% of the region’s overall mobile connections, according to the GSMA report
5G is forecast to reach 55% of the total mobile connections in Latin America by 2030, up from a current penetration of around 5%, according to a recent report by telecom association GSMA.
By 2025, 5G technology will account for 14% of the region’s overall mobile connections, according to the GSMA report.
The report also revealed that the region will have a total of 425 million subscribers in the 5G segment by the end of the decade.
“By that time, 5G technology will represent a two-digit portion of the total connections in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Guatemala and Uruguay. In the second half of the decade, 5G adoption will rise sharply as new 5G markets emerge and existing 5G networks expand to new areas,” the report stated.
As of April 2024, a total of 29 operators in 10 countries had already launched commercial 5G services across the region. “Many others have planned do it in the coming years. For those who are pioneers, 5G adoption is reaching mass market levels. For example, Movistar Chile revealed at MWC Barcelona 2024 that it had surpassed 1.5 million 5G customers, equivalent to almost a fifth of its total mobile connections,” the report added.
GSMA also noted that the first 5G use cases in Latin America relate to enhanced mobile broadband services (eMBB) and fixed wireless access (FWA) to meet the growing demand for connectivity.
5G technology is expected to contribute with $70 billion to the Latin American economy in 2030, which will represent almost 11% of the total economic impact of the mobile sector, according to the report. “Much of this benefit will materialize during the second half of the decade. Some countries are in the early stages of deployment, which means that the benefits will increase as the technology begins to scale.”
By 2030, Brazil is expected to be the country with the highest penetration of 5G as this technology will account for 78% of the country’s overall mobile base, according to the report. In 2023, 5G technology accounted for 9% of the country’s overall mobile base.
The GSMA report showed that 5G penetration in the Mexican market is expected to reach 62% by 2030, up compared to a penetration of 6% last year.
Meanwhile, the report also stated that 5G penetration in Argentina is expected to reach 46% by 2030. 5G penetration had reached 2% of all mobile connections in Argentina last year, according to the GSMA report.
