Within the framework of the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the GSMA reported that it is expected that by the end of 2025 there will be 1.8 billion 5G connections, which is equivalent to saying that 20% of mobile telephone connections will be fifth generation. Most adoptions of the new technology will take place in North America and Asia-Pacific. The GSMA highlighted that 5G adoption will represent 53% (164 million) of total connections in Australia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.
In North America, 51% (219 million) of all mobile connections will use 5G networks, and China will have 828 million 5G connections, almost half of the global total expected by 2025.
At the end of 2020, individual mobile subscribers worldwide totaled 5.2 billion (67% of the population), with no significant differences compared to 2019, as, according to the GSMA, the markets were becoming saturated. By the end of 2025, almost 500 million new subscribers, mostly from Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, will bring total mobile subscriptions to 5.7 billion worldwide.
In 2020, mobile technologies and services contributed $4.4 trillion (about €3.7 trillion) to global GDP, up from $4.1 trillion (about €3.4 trillion) at the end of 2019. They are expected to contribute almost $5 trillion (about €4.2 trillion) to global GDP by the end of 2025, because the adoption of mobile services will grow as various countries verify its importance in increasing productivity.