5G to support over 10% of global mobile connections by 2023

For the past 50 years, each decade introduced a new mobile technology with cutting-edge innovations. Mobile bandwidth requirements have evolved from voice calls and texting to ultra-high-definition (UHD) video and a variety of augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) applications. Consumers and business users worldwide continue to create new demands and expectations for mobile networking. This ongoing trend is clearly highlighted by the adoption and use of mobile applicatons. Social networking, video streaming and downloads, business productivity, e-commerce and gaming will drive the continued growth of mobile applications with nearly 300 billion downloaded by 2023.

“What we are seeing from our research is a continuous rise in internet users, devices, connections, and more demand on the network than we could have imagined,” said Roland Acra, Senior Vice President and Chief Techonology Officer at Cisco. “The insights and knowledge gained by our Annual Internet Report are helping global service providers prepare their networks for the ongoing growth in connections, and envision the greatest opportunities to capitalize on their technology innovations and strategic investments.”

Cisco Annual Internet Report Highlights (2018 – 2023)

The Cisco Annual Internet Report covers mobile, Wi-Fi and fixed broadband networking with quantitative projections on the growth of users, devices and connections as well as network performance and relevant trends over a five-year forecast period (2018 – 2023).

1.      Global mobile and internet user projections by 2023

·        More than 70 percent of the global population (5.7 billion people) will have mobile connectivity (2G, 3G, 4G or 5G).

·        66 percent of the global population (5.3 billion people) will be internet users.

2.      Global devices and connections projections by 2023

·        There will be 3.6 networked devices/connections per person and nearly 10 devices and connections per household.

·        Nearly half (47%) of all devices and connections will be video capable.

·        Machine-to-machine (M2M) connections that support a broad range of IoT applications will represent about 50% (14.7 billion) of total global devices and connections.

3.      Global mobile projections by 2023

·        45% of all networked devices will be mobile-connected (3G and below, 4G 5G or Low Power Wide Area [LPWA]) and 55% will be wired or connected over Wi-Fi.

·        Global 5G connections will be 10.6% of total mobile connections, compared to 0.0% in 2018.

·        By 2023, global LPWA connections will be 14.4% of total mobile connections, compared to 2.5% in 2018.

4.      Global Wi-Fi projections by 2023

·        Global Wi-Fi hotspots will grow four-fold from 2018 to 2023. There will be nearly 628 million global public Wi-Fi hotspots, up from 169 million in 2018.

·        Global Wi-Fi6 hotspots will grow 13-fold from 2020 to 2023 and will be 11% of all public Wi-Fi hotspots.

5.      Global network performance projections (mobile, Wi-Fi, and fixed broadband) by 2023

·        Average global mobile connection speeds will more than triple from 13 Mbps (2018) to 44 Mbps (2023).

·        Average global Wi-Fi connection speeds will more than triple from 30 Mbps (2018) to 92 Mbps (2023).

·        Average global fixed broadband speeds will more than double from 46 Mbps (2018) to 110 Mbps (2023).

6.      Global cybersecurity trends

·        Globally, the frequency of DDoS attacks increased by 39%.

·        Globally the peak attack size increased 63% year over year.

·        Average DDoS attack size is 1 Gbps with 23% greater; 776% growth in attacks between 100 Gbps and 400 Gbps year over year.