Operators must take advantage of network virtualisation and other technologies if they are to minimise the cost per bit of forthcoming 5G networks and maximise its potential, a new report has claimed.
Juniper Research has predicted there will be revenues from 5G of $300 billion by 2025, up from $894 million in 2019, when many operators are planning to launch their first networks. Sales will have a compound annual growth rate of 163 percent.
The report suggested that 5G will lead to a much needed revenue boost for operators. By 2025, 5G will account for 38 percent of sales.
By contrast, the predicted 1.5 billion connections in the same year will be the equivalent of 14 percent of total cellular connections.
However, Juniper researchers said the challenge for operators was to ensure the correct pricing and network configuration strategies were in place in order to receive an adequate return on the necessary investment.
It said the anticipated IoT boom would mean operators would have to offer pricing that reflects data consumption, the kinds of devices connected and the variety of speeds required by their customers.
It warned technologies such as network virtualisation, which will increase efficiencies of managing operations, will be a must because of the explosion in data use.
The required research and development by operators, vendors and public sector organisations will hit $60 billion by the end of this year.
Almost half of that will be spent on trialling networks ahead of commercial launches in 2019.
5G connections will generate 955EB of data by 2025, which is the equivalent of 143 billion hours of 4K streaming.
Research author Sam Baker said: “5G for home broadband services will be the biggest driver in growth of cellular traffic after initial launches. By 2025, the average 5G home broadband connection will generate over 430GB of data per month.”