This brief article covers the impact of COVID-19 on 5G infrastructure. Read on to know more about it…
The COVID-19 outbreak have led to the rise demand of high speed Internet in remote work, school, and entertainment for thousands of people across the world. This has caused Internet use to surge — placing big demands on communication networks. For instance, people are signing up for streaming services at a rapid rate. Forbes reported that signups for Disney+, HBO Now and Netflix subscriptions have increased rapidly during the lockdown period in the U.S and several countries. This is in addition to work at home and remote educational needs.
There are few issues relevant to 5G deployment, specifically around spectrum allocation. Telcos in several markets have faced challenges upgrading network infrastructure and are bidding large sums to acquire spectrum licenses, and this was before the COVID-19 pandemic.
5G Infrastructure Market
According to Market Study Report, 5G Infrastructure Market provides a comprehensive analysis of the 5G Infrastructure Market segments, including their dynamics, size, growth, regulatory requirements, competitive landscape, technological trends and emerging opportunities of global Industry.
Post COVID-19, the 5G Infrastructure market is estimated to grow from USD 12.6 Billion in 2020 and projected to reach USD 44.9 Billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 28.97%. The projection for 2025 is estimated to be down by 22.79% as compared to pre COVID-19 estimation.
The Industrial market is estimated to grow at the highest rate because of the growing demand for process automation in various manufacturing and process industries. 5G networks will become main stream in industrial facilities for various applications. To efficiently collect, store, manage, and analyze the data generated by connected devices, a robust communication network infrastructure such as 5G will be needed to facilitate communication between IoT devices.
Key Vendors
Some of the major players in the 5G infrastructure Industry market are Ericsson – Sweden, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. – US, Nokia Networks – Finland, Samsung Electronics Co.Ltd. – South Korea, ZTE Corporation – China. These players account for the majority of the global 5G infrastructure market share.
The impact of COVID-19 on Ericsson and Nokia will be high as the majority of these vendors have 5G contracts in the US and European countries. In 2020 and 2021, the majority of the market will be driven by the aggressive 5G rollout plans by Chinese telecommunication operators. These telecommunications operators mainly prefer domestic vendors instead of Nokia and Ericsson. The majority of the 5G contracts released by Chinese telecommunication operators have been offered to Huawei and ZTE, with a remaining few to Nokia, Ericson, and Samsung.
Predictions in U.S.
In a recent release by GlobalData, a data and analytics company stated that U.S. carriers are hoping the second half of 2020 will give them an opportunity to sell 5G services as the technology and coverage improves.
Early criticisms of the rollouts have revolved around poor coverage, sluggish performance for low-band deployments and expensive smart phones, the report asserts. All nationwide operators are aiming to have 5G footprints that are significantly better than today’s with more technological advances that should differentiate the performance of 5G from existing LTE networks by the end of 2020 or early 2021, predicts GlobalData.
A Brief Conclusion
During this period of disruption, 5G service providers are playing a critical role in connecting people and businesses. Only time will tell how much of an impact COVID-19 will have on the continuing global rollout of 5G technology.
