Mid-Band Spectrum eMBB Applications will be the Greatest Source of Revenue through 2027
Speak directly to the analyst to clarify any post sales queries you may have.
This 5G applications market report is the most comprehensive research available addressing the LTE and 5G application and service market. This report evaluates cellular broadband applications and services including revenue and usage (subscribers/users) by LTE, LTE Advanced, LTE Advanced Pro, and 5G. The report also assesses the LTE and 5G applications market in private wireless networks as well as market opportunities for Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) in public and private networks including the market for computing as a service.
Select Report Findings:
- Mobile Edge Computing will be key for private wireless implementation
- MEC will also be important for public consumer applications, but lower priority
- 5GNR market for private wireless in industrial automation will reach $6.3B by 2027
- 5G applications market for enterprise and industrial segments will exceed $50B globally by 2027
- Global revenue for LTE based enterprise and SMB mobility apps and services will reach $7.4B by 2027
- Key 5G solution areas for business will be IoT connectivity, SMB/corporate mobility, and fixed wireless
5G will bring about fundamental structural economic changes, such as significantly lower broadband pricing as a whole, and also much greater flexibility for enterprise, industrial, and government market segments in terms of how they connect public to private networks. Future use cases for the 5G applications market are many and varied in terms of type, industry vertical focus, and requirements. Correspondingly, each scenario will have its own network configuration of requirements and parameters.
This report is the most comprehensive research available addressing the LTE and 5G application market. This report evaluates cellular broadband applications and services including revenue and usage (subscribers/users) by LTE, LTE Advanced, LTE Advanced Pro, and 5G applications and services.
This 5G applications market report also assesses LTE and 5G in private wireless networks as well as market opportunities for Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) in public and private networks including the market for computing as a service. The report includes 5G application market sizing as well as LTE apps and services in terms of penetration and revenue for the following areas:
- Mobile Network Operator Provided Apps and Services in Consumer, Business, and Government Markets
- Computing as a Service (via Mobile Edge Computing) by Customer Type (Enterprise, Industrial, and Government)
- OTT Provided Apps and Services including VoIP, Messaging, Social Media, Video, Entertainment, and Productivity
- LTE, LTE Advanced, LTE Advanced Pro and 5G-based Apps by Smart Cities and Suburbs, Exurban Areas, Rural Areas
- LTE Applications and Services by LTE User Equipment (LTE UE) Categories including Cat M1, Cat NB1, Cat 1, and Cat 4
- Apps and Services by LTE and 5G Device including Modems, IoT/M2M Modules, Smartphones, Wearables, and more
- LTE and 5G in Critical Communications by Segment (Public Safety, Homeland Security, Transportation, Utilities, Others)
- LTE and 5G Applications by Industry Vertical including Automotive, Government, Healthcare, Manufacturing, and Retail
- 5G Apps by Private Wireless, Industrial Automation, Critical Communications Services, Industry Verticals, and much more
- 5G Apps and Services by Category: Enhanced Mobile Broadband, Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications, and Massive Machine-Type Communications
The report also evaluates supporting technologies such as Artificial Intelligence in LTE and 5G by Technology, Customer Type, and Data as a Service. The report also assesses opportunities for Blockchain technology in 5G. For example, the report provides forecasting for Global Blockchain Driven LTE and 5G Applications Market by Connection.
The commercial deployment and operation of 5G will bring very important benefits to the ICT industry. One of those will be massive Internet of Things (IoT) networks, which refers to the ability of deploying and operating IoT systems at a very large scale. As the size of IoT systems grows to large scale, their scope will also increase in terms of the impact on enterprise systems and consumers' everyday lives.
IoT solutions will benefit greatly from the implementation of 5G as cellular providers deploy Low Power WAN (LPWAN) IoT network capabilities. Initial deployments of IoT LPWANs have been non-cellular solutions based on proprietary technologies. However, the author sees emerging standards such as Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) assuming a dominant role for certain IoT applications. We see many industry verticals willing to pay a premium over non-cellular LPWAN, enhanced flexibility, and improved capabilities associated with IoT on 5G networks.
The use of 5G for Industrial IoT (IIoT) networks in particular will be of great importance to enterprise IIoT in certain industry verticals such as agriculture, logistics, and manufacturing. For example, we see IIoT and industrial agriculture benefits through the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) operation over 5G networks due to ultra-low latency and high capacity availability.
The 5G applications market will benefit from significantly higher bandwidth for general mobility applications such as anytime, anywhere that ultra-high-speed Internet access and ultra-high definition video. 5G will also enable critical communications by way of ultra-low latency communications. Thirdly, 5G will optimize IoT networks by way of radio frequency management that meets the needs of both narrowband IoT applications as well as those that require higher bandwidth, which may be on an on-demand basis.
Manufacturing, industrial automation, and robotics are key sectors that will benefit substantially. Prior to 5G, teleoperation was largely relegated to fixed communications connections. The 5G applications market within the industrial vertical will support teleoperation anywhere there is 5G coverage, enabling many new consumer and industrial automation scenarios involving robotics. 5G enables ultra-reliable, low-latency capabilities for industrial automation.
High-band 5G is significantly faster than LTE with much lower latency due to faster overall throughput. However, there are many challenges including the fact that the new radio component via millimeter wave (mmWave) RF has a high degree of attenuation (loss over the air and when hitting solid objects). Therefore, the industry needs to deploy smart antennas (with beamforming and MIMO). Also, the higher frequency mmWave RF is line of sight based because of the high degree of fading. Because of all of the aforementioned, there must also be many more cell sites deployed than ever before - like a factor of 10X or more.
5G is based on a transformed Radio Access Network (RAN) and Core Network (CN) for carriers. There were changes with LTE, such as leveraging IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) for Voice over LTE (VoLTE). However, the changes with 5G are considerably larger, and the infrastructure is much more purpose-built with an emphasis on a Services Based Architecture (SBA) approach.
This SBA approach will include tight integration with edge computing networks as identified by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) for integration with Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC). This will be deployed in a manner in which MEC supports 5G to preserve the tremendous throughput and latency improvements that will be gained by using 5G versus LTE.
These throughput and latency improvements will allow another important area latency-sensitive application that rely upon Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC). Examples of URLLC dependent apps and services including UAV operation, autonomous vehicles, teleoperation (remote control of equipment and other assets from a distance), robotics, augmented and virtual reality, tele-surgery, haptic communications, and other critical communications such as public safety apps.
5G provides substantial bandwidth where needed as well as significantly lower latency for next generation applications and services such as virtual reality-controlled teleoperation and other URLLC dependent apps and services. Previously encumbered by a combination of technology gaps and consumer readiness issues, the global 5G applications market for immersive apps such as Virtual Reality (VR) is poised for considerable growth, providing abundant opportunities for service providers, content developers, and ecosystem component providers. Coupled with the deployment of gigabit Ethernet fiber, 5G will transform the VR market, leading to a fully immersive experience with haptic capabilities becoming embedded in many applications.
The use cases for future 5G applications market solutions are many and varied in terms of type, industry vertical focus, and requirements. Many of these use cases will involve IoT and/or be supported by AI algorithms. The role and importance of AI in 5G ranges from optimizing resource allocation to data security and protection of network and enterprise assets. However, the concept of using AI in networking is a relatively new area that will ultimately require a more unified approach to fully realize its great potential.
5G makes IoT scalable for mobile network operators. Currently, IoT relies upon many proprietary, non-cellular means for Wide Area Network (WAN) communications. With the introduction of 5G support for "Massive IoT" via the Machine Communications support capabilities, Machine-to-Machine (M2M) networking will be able to become virtually as large as it needs to be for a given enterprise, network, system, etc. Stated differently, there will be the ability for many more low-power IoT devices with extreme coverage within a metropolitan area.
In addition, the 5G applications market benefits from greatly improved general mobile broadband communications for things that consumers do today - mostly video-oriented if one is measuring usage on a data consumption basis. Expectations will transition from high definition to ultra-high definition video. We already have high definition voice, but Voice over 5G (Vo5G) will leverage IMS to provide an improved voice/audio experience in terms of integration with many applications such as virtual reality.
Vo5G supports voice/audio as a key component of communications for a wide variety of apps and services for many consumer, enterprise, and industrial solutions. Vo5G will utilize video or voice over NR infrastructure in coordination with voice or video over eLTE, EPS fall-back, and RAT fall-back. However, the first phase of cellular voice leverages VoeLTE to route voice calls but offering enhanced and robust solutions over 5G NR requires the implementation of EPS FB and RAT FB. The 5G NR solution cannot represent all voice or video calls without the technical backbone of EPS FB and RAT FB.
A critically important part of the core 5G network infrastructure is the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), which represents a framework composed of computing and telecom architecture elements intended for delivering Internet Protocol (IP) based multimedia services with quality of service over multiple access networks from a common core.
IMS provides multimedia session control across multiple access networks with standardized quality of service control. It enables an operator to have a common 'core' across all its networks for communication services and provides a relatively open environment for value-added communication services. It also provides a framework for Voice over LTE (VoLTE) for high definition voice and Voice over 5G (Vo5G) for ultra-high definition voice communications.
IMS is not economically viable if the goal is simply to replicate existing services in a new architecture. The payoff of IMS is to develop and introduce new value-added services for incremental revenue at a lower cost per subscriber. The author sees an important portion of those VAS applications being ultra-high definition voice-enabled next-generation apps such as virtual reality. In addition, we see emerging technologies, such as haptic Internet and robotic teleoperation will become commonplace thanks to 5G infrastructure.
5G radio infrastructure covered in this report includes Distributed Macrocell (5G Base Stations), Small Cells (Microcell, Femtocell, and Picocell), RRHs (Remote Radio Heads), C-RAN BBUs (Baseband Units) and Distributed Antenna System (DAS) equipment. IMS infrastructure covered in this report includes Home Subscriber Server (HSS), User Profile Server Function (UPSF), Breakout Gateway Control Function (BGCF), Media Gateway Controller Function (MGCF), and Media Resource Function (MRF).
In terms of the Radio Access Network (RAN) portion of 5G, mmWave radio frequencies fade considerably as compared to LTE, necessitating the need for at least ten times more antennas than 4G technologies require. In addition, 5GNR will require 5G smart antennas to optimize coverage, mobility, and minimize the need for handover from 5G to 4G RAN. Accordingly, the 5G applications market will be dependent upon smart antennas that use Multiple Input / Multiple Output (MIMO) at both the source (transmitter) and the destination (receiver) to improve signal quality.
In addition, 5G core networks will have new capabilities such as network slicing, which will enable carriers to support unique network configuration for customer and use-case specific requirements and parameters. 5G network slicing provides the ability to support Quality of Service (QoS) driven capacity allocation and latency limitations based on Quality of Experience (QoE) and other factors. This will enable carriers to support QoS and QoE requirements for 5G applications market solutions, which will be especially important for some enterprise and industrial customers.
The 5G applications market will be comprised of three service categories: (1) Enhanced Mobile Services, (2) Massively scalable Internet of Things (IoT) Networks, and (3) Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Communication for both mission-critical services (such as public safety and industrial automation) and latency-sensitive consumer services (such as Virtual Reality). A portion of these benefits will be based on the evolution of fourth-generation (4G) Long Term Evolution (LTE) technologies as well as unique capabilities enabled by 5G New Radio (5GNR) based on the new infrastructure supporting millimeter wave (mmWave) radio access network (RAN) equipment.
Often used synonymously, MEC refers to Mobile Edge Computing or Multi-Access Edge Computing with the former being more cellular network-centric (LTE and 5G) and the latter terminology adopted by standards groups to generalize edge computing to reflect that it may be also be used by WiFi and other wireless access technologies. The distinction between Multi-Access Edge Computing vs. Mobile Edge Computing for MEC largely ends with radio access and network type as almost every other aspect is the same including localizing computing (e.g. computation and storage closer to the end-user), network element virtualization, software, and service-centric operations.
In cellular networks, edge computing via MEC is beneficial for LTE but virtually essential for the 5G applications market. This is because Mobile Edge Computing facilitates optimization of fifth-generation network resources including focusing communications and computational capacity where it is needed the most. The research findings indicate a strong relationship between edge computing and 5G. In fact, if it were not for MEC, 5G would continue to rely upon back-haul to centralized cloud resources for storage and computing, diminishing much of the otherwise positive impact of latency reduction enabled by 5G.
Taken together, 5G and MEC are two technologies that are poised to fundamentally transform many industry verticals. Manufacturing, industrial automation, and robotics are key sectors that will benefit substantially. For example, prior to 5G and MEC, teleoperation is largely relegated to fixed communications connections. 5G and MEC will enable teleoperation anywhere there is 5G coverage, enabling many new consumer and industrial automation scenarios involving robotics.
With the purchase of this report at the Multi-user License or greater level, you will have access to one hour with an expert analyst who will help you link key findings in the report to the business issues you're addressing. This will need to be used within three months of purchase.
This report also includes a complimentary Excel file with data from the report for purchasers at the Site License or greater level.
Table of Contents
1.0 Executive Summary
Companies Mentioned
- Airspan
- Airtel
- Alibaba
- Altair Semiconductor
- Alvarion
- Amazon
- America Movil
- Analog Devices Inc.
- Apple
- Ascom
- Asus
- AT&T
- Broadcom Corporation
- BT Group
- Cavium Inc.
- China Mobile
- China Telecom
- China Unicom
- Ciena Corporation
- Cisco Systems
- ClipBucket
- Cobham Wireless
- Colt
- Contus Vplay
- Coolpad Dyno
- Cradlepoint
- D-Link
- Deutsche Telekom AG
- Dish
- DU
- Entel
- Ericsson
- Eurotech
- Fitbit
- Fubo TV
- Fujitsu Ltd.
- Gemalto
- Harris
- HPE
- HTC
- Huawei Technologies
- Hulu
- Hytera
- Inmarsat
- Intel Corporation
- Juniper Network Inc.
- KDDI Corporation
- KT Corporation
- Leonardo
- LG Electronics
- LG Uplus
- M2M Connectivity PTY Ltd.
- MACOM Technology
- MediaTek Inc.
- Mentura Group
- Microsoft
- Misfit
- Mobiotics
- Mobvoi
- Motorola
- Movistar
- Muvi
- MYCOM OSI
- NEC Corporation
- Netcracker
- Netflix
- Netgear
- Nokia Network
- NTT DoCoMo
- Ooredoo
- Ooyala
- Orange SA
- Philo TV
- Qorvo Inc.
- Qualcomm
- Quickplay
- Rakuten
- RedLinX
- REVE Systems
- Ribbon Communications
- Rogers Communications
- Roku
- Samsung Electronics
- Saudi Telecom Company
- Sierra Wireless
- SimNet Wireless
- SingTel
- Siretta
- SK Telecom
- Sky Go
- Skype
- Snap Inc.
- Softbank Group
- Sony
- Spark NZ
- Spotify AB
- Sprint Corporation
- Swisscom
- T-Mobile USA
- Telecom Italia
- Telefonica
- Telegram
- Telenor
- Telit Communications
- Telstra
- Tencent
- Texim Europe
- UbiFi
- Verizon
- Vidmind
- VMware Inc.
- Vodafone Group
- Vplayed
- Zain
- Zenitel
- ZTE Corporation
- Zyxel
Methodology
LOADING...
