There will be around 690 million 5G connections by 2025, five years after the standard is expected to be approved, Strategy Analytics predicts.
The research firm expects 5G to account for 7% of mobile connections by this time, driven by early adopters in the US, South Korea and Japan.
China has also laid out a 2020 5G launch plan, Strategy Analytics notes, which will help accelerate adoption.
Operators including NTT DoCoMo, SK Telecom, Verizon and AT&T are leading the charge
Commercial 5G handset sales are meanwhile expected to exceed 300 million by 2025, according to Strategy Analytics director Ken Hyers.
“While the first commercial 5G handsets will appear in small numbers in 2020 in South Korea and Japan, from 2021 more countries including the US, UK, Sweden, UAE and China will see their own launches,” he said.
“By 2022 tens of millions of 5G handsets will be sold, and as a proportion of total handset sales will reach low single digit percentages.”
The first trial 5G handsets expected to emerge in 2018 are expected to have issues including short battery life, no 4G handover or unstable connectivity, Strategy Analytics said. But these teething problems are expected to have been largely resolved once commercial handsets reach the market.