Industry association GSMA predicted 5G connections across Asia Pacific will more than double to 400 million by 2025, with Australia, Japan and South Korea and Singapore to account for 55 per cent of the total.

In its Mobile Economy Asia Pacific 2022 report, the GSMA highlighted 5G services are commercially available in 14 markets, with India and Vietnam expected to go live in the coming months.

It also noted 5G has significant room to grow in the region, particularly in South and Southeast Asia.

GSMA expects 5G connections to hit 200 million this year and account for 14 per cent of the region’s total by 2025.

In developed markets, 5G penetration is tipped to rise to 67 per cent compared with 9 per cent in developing countries.

The GSMA noted while mobile broadband networks reached nearly 96 per cent of the region’s population at end-2021, just 44 per cent (1.2 billion) use mobile internet services. The figure is expected to climb to 52 per cent by 2025.

It argued the reasons for the gap are a lack of digital skills, affordability and online safety concerns.

Julian Gorman, GSMA’s head of Asia Pacific, stated “addressing the usage gap and extending the benefits of the internet to more people” requires “a concerted effort by a broad range of stakeholders, working together with mobile operators and other ecosystem players such as device manufacturers and digital content creators, to drive adoption and overcome the barriers we see today”.

Adoption of 4G services in Asia Pacific is forecast to peak at 71 per cent in 2023 and decline to 69 per cent by 2025.

Other predictions include smartphone penetration rising from 73 per cent to 83 per cent and total IoT connections from 2.1 billion to 3.3 billion over the three-year period.