The number of 5G connections is forecast to grow from roughly 10 million in 2019 to 1.01 billion in 2023, IDC reveals.

This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 217.2% over the 2019-2023 forecast period. By 2023, 5G is expected to represent 8.9% of all mobile device connections.

What is driving 5G adoption?

Data creation and consumption. The amount of data created and consumed by consumers and businesses will continue to grow over the coming years. Shifting data-intensive users and use cases to 5G will allow network operators to more efficiently manage network resources, improving performance and reliability as a result.