Research: Global operators' 5G revenue will reach US$400 billion in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 32%

According to a recent study conducted by research firm Juniper Research, 5G Advanced and 5G RedCap will help communications operators generate $400 billion in service revenue from 5G networks in 2024, a 32% increase compared to last year.

According to a research report released by the company, as 5G penetration among consumers approaches saturation, operators must launch 5G services, especially 5G Advanced and 5G RedCap, for enterprise IoT users.

The report describes 5G Advanced as “the next evolutionary stage of 5G development” and says it will bring new opportunities to operators and enhance 5G’s support for XR, VR and AR applications, while AI and ML will be key to improving network performance.

The company said, “Redcap is an emerging 5G standard that will leverage 5G network standards to deliver high data rates, extended battery life and low latency for specific use cases in the IoT space. As outlined in 3GPP specification Release 17, the service will provide operators with a platform to compete with other connectivity technologies outside the telecom ecosystem.”

Juniper Research notes that these technologies will help drive the growth of the IoT industry, predicting that by 2028, there will be more than 360 million 5G IoT devices using public networks worldwide, up from 35 million in 2024.

At the same time, fixed wireless access (FWA) will also benefit from the speed improvements of these technologies, allowing operators to offer network conditions similar to those of fixed network service providers.

Sam Barker, co-author of the research report, said: “FWA has been positioned as a key service for 5G network monetization, but the emergence of 5G Advanced and 5G RedCap will enable operators to offer network services similar to those of fixed network service providers. Operators must leverage their existing billing relationships with consumers to promote their FWA solutions.”

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At the same time, the report further looks into the future of 6G. 5G Advanced will support the development of 6G, which is expected to further promote the construction of a more efficient digital ecosystem.

“For example, technologies such as XR will evolve into immersive communications where humans will interact with machines, which will require 6G to provide more advanced experiences,” the report said. “In addition, the technology components studied in 5G advanced evolution are important precursors to key 6G building blocks. 6G will process data at the edge of the network faster and continue to be used for critical services. The development of 6G will build on the existing 5G infrastructure and continue to improve the reliability, efficiency and optimization of the entire network.”

Although operators expect 5G revenue to grow 32% this year, reports indicate that many of the emerging services they are beginning to roll out to the enterprise market will depend on the continued expansion of 5G standalone networks to fully exploit 5G's capabilities. However, market statistics released by the Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) at the end of last year showed that the number of operators investing in standalone 5G networks around the world was growing slowly.