5G A mobile life

5G is finally starting to be widely used and over the next three pages Paul Skeldon looks at where it’s at today and what it might be offering tomorrow – starting with some of today’s key developments

It’s been a long time coming, but 5G is finally rolled out and, while only 32% of consumers worldwide use it with any regularity, it is set to be the network we all use to do all the real and virtual things the telemedia industry has in store.

But what of today: where is 5G seeing some wins right now and what does that mean down the line?

STREAMING

The bandwidth, network slicing and ‘brains’ within 5G is already driving a boom in streaming of everything from music and podcasts to audio to games. Latency and lag are greatly reduced –even when the network is under strain – and users get a great experience.

In addition, this leads to new services looking to stream to mobile users, creating the opportunity for new money-making services to be rolled out.

Sam Media’s Holozonia, for example, is something that leads the way in 5G ready services, which brings us to…

THE METAVERSE

Widespread 5G is what will make the metaverse ubiquitous. The bandwidth and low latency will be essential for mobile metaverse applications and, in making the metaverse easy to use – and not at all frustratingly jerky – will see more people want to try it, immerse themselves in it and then start spending their (virtual) money in it.

AR AND VR

Like the metaverse – and indeed as part of the metaverse – 5G is also starting to see widespread adoption of AR overlays and virtual reality services on mobile. These require a stable network that will not glitch at a crucial moment and 5G is delivering. This is leading to services across m-commerce such as placing virtual items in the home before buying, to capturing AR Pokémon wherever you go.

GAMING

5G is already having an impact on gaming, offering a raft of advantages to deep and casual gamers alike. This is particularly true for multi-player, interactive gaming as it allows for more users to interact in the same game at the same time while enjoying high level graphics and very low latency.

It also greatly improves mobile cloud gaming, which will see more users attracted to playing these games and more cloud games being created – adding significant growth to this segment of the games market.

ROAMING

And all of this will be done wherever the consumer goes. Operators will see retail roaming revenues from consumer and IoT mobile connections approach $33bn by 2028, fuelled by a complete recovery in travel and increased consumer roaming usage across key markets.

In addition, an eight-fold increase in 5G consumer roaming connections between 2024 and 2028 is also forecast, contributing to an estimated 70% average annual growth in retail revenues.

According to Retail Roaming: Market Trends & Outlook 2024 research found that the retail roaming spend per trip will continue to fall in all major regions over the next five years. This will be driven by the continued expansion of ‘roam like at home’ and the introduction of cheaper daily bundles worldwide.

Kaleido expects IoT roaming connections to continue to see robust growth, exceeding 1 billion by 2028. However, monetisation of roaming IoT devices will become a fundamental aspect for operators, as they ensure access based charging offers do not price customers out of the market.