376.000 Babies are born every day, while 6.4 million mobile phones are being sold. With the advent of 5G Statista makes the implications of mobile data networks tangible. The underlying global, open and interoperable 3GPP mobile communications standards, behind 5G and its predecessors, was born in 1998 and has since then been a key driver for technical revolutions and social evolutions. As of May 2020, 125 countries around the globe have started investing into the latest iteration of the 3GPP standard. 5G is expected to reach 1 billion users faster than any other technological phenomena: It took credit cards 74 years to reach that milestone, 5G is expected to take three and a half years. By 2025 more than 2.5bn people will be actively using 5G.

With more mobile subscriptions than people on earth, 3GPP has truly penetrated society in ways no other information communication technology has been able to achieve, whereas landline subscriptions are down to a mere 12% of the world’s population. The global scale of mobile data might also come from its affordability. Because although the overall commodity prices have inflated over the years, mobile data has become significantly cheaper. A gigabyte of mobile data cost the equivalent of 25 Big Macs in 2012 – in 2020 this is down to two.

3GPP technologies are also enablers for global internet adoption (82% mobile internet penetration vs 14% fixed internet penetration 2019) and hence the global adoption of mobile digital services. An estimated 2.3m jobs have been directly or indirectly created by the telecommunications industry in North America alone.  Around 65% of all online shoppers in Europe do so on mobile and nearly half of all internet traffic in Oceania stems from mobile devices. There remains enormous untapped potential in rapidly expanding markets like Africa and Latin America.

Find more interesting facts in the dossier A mobile connected world, which takes a further look at the evolution of the 3G, 4G & 5G mobile technology standards across their lifespans, covering facts from the introduction of each standard to forecasts of their growth in the future.

If you have an questions or would like a press copy of the dossier, feel free to contact us.