The Majority of Historical 5G Growth Comes from the Consumer Market, Leaving the Enterprise Woefully Underserved – Will 5G Advanced Change That?

By 2030, 75% of 5G base stations will be upgraded to 5G Advanced, accounting for 76 million radios, 23 million macro basebands, and 13 million small cells – all in the consumer market. Adoption in the enterprise will be slower, with half (14 million) small cells upgraded to 5G Advanced by 2030. This dynamic is illustrative of both 5G’s impressive evolution –and current frustrating shortcomings.

In its new whitepaper, Is the Industry – and the World – Ready for 5G Advanced?, global intelligence firm ABI Research explores how 5G Advanced—the next evolution of 5G—can be the key to unlocking new capabilities and revenue streams. “It offers features and tools that are ripe for enterprise deployment and innovation, including high-precision 5G positioning, advanced Sidelink device-to-device (D2D) communication, affordable and flexible Reduced Capability (RedCap) New Radio, and support for a host of augmented, virtual, and extended reality use cases,” explains Dimitris Mavrakis, Senior Research Director at ABI Research, and author of the whitepaper.

“However, it remains to be seen whether operators are poised to take advantage,” Mavrakis ponders. 5G standalone (5G SA), a precursor to 5G Advanced that introduced Service Based Architecture (SBA), where the core network deployment process is based on microservices, APIs, and functionality exposure to third parties, has barely broken through. Only a handful of operators have launched nationwide deployments, and most SA launches are focusing on network efficiency rather than innovative use cases.

“This is a mistake that the industry cannot keep repeating. If it does, 5G will be doomed to failure and the industry will be forced to restart the cycle again with 6G,” Mavrakis concludes.

To learn more about the evolution of 5G and receive a detailed analysis of 5G Advanced, download the whitepaper, Is the Industry – and the World – Ready for 5G Advanced?