The world is moving aggressively towards 5G. Telecom operators globally have been testing and investing in 5G. Several countries have already switched on 5G networks. In the Asia Pacific, telcos are expected to incur $134 billion worth of capex on 5G during 2022-25, of which they will spend 75% on 5G.
Developing Asia Pacific (APAC) regions will be increasing the capex on 5G, while for the developed regions, the capex will go down, said GSMA (via ET Telecom).
5G subscriptions are also going to grow exponentially in APAC in the coming years. By 2025, the GSMA report said that there would be around 400 million 5G subscriptions in the Asia Pacific. Many major countries such as India and Vietnam will switch on their 5G networks in the near future, which will contribute to the total 5G subscription count.
5G Subscriptions in Developed APAC to be Higher
The GSMA report said that 5G subscriptions in the developed APAC regions would be higher than the number in developing regions. This makes sense as the developed regions will have a ready ecosystem and ready consumers.
5G handset sales in countries such as India have grown exponentially. In other Asian countries as well, users are choosing to get a 5G smartphone as their next new device. Users want to invest in a smartphone that is future-ready.
This is going to benefit the telcos in APAC a lot because as soon as they launch 5G services, they will have a ready market to serve. The revenues of the telecom operators are expected to rise to $224 billion in 2025 compared to $210 billion in 2021.
As of April 2022, over 25 telecom operators in 18 countries in the APAC have launched commercial 5G standalone (SA) services. In India, it is highly anticipated that Jio will be the first to do this. 5G SA will give users the true experience of 5G networks.
