For all the hype surrounding 5G, the new mobile technology standard’s proliferation across the globe won’t unfurl lightening quick.
Cisco’s Mobile Visual Network Index (VNI) predicts that in three years, only about 3 percent of total mobile connections will occur over 5G networks. And connections, both to 5G device users and machine-to-machine systems, will account for only about 12 percent of global mobile data traffic.
Certainly, the amount of mobile traffic has steeply increased. Cisco predicts that by 2022, mobile usage will account for nearly 20 percent of global IP traffic, reaching 930 exabytes annually. That’s up nearly 113 times over mobile traffic generated in 2012.
See also: What 5G Could Mean For CE (And The Retailers Selling It)
Other predictions include increased usage of low-power, wide-area networks (LPWA), which supported only around 1.5 percent of mobile devices and M2M connections in 2017, but will grow to 14 percent by 2022.
By 2022, Cisco said that 4G networks will support about 54 percent of mobile connections worldwide.
Cisco, meanwhile, forecasts modest increases of mobile traffic to Wi-Fi: In 2017, 54 percent of mobile data traffic was offloaded; but by 2022, 59 percent of global mobile data traffic will be offloaded to Wi-Fi.
