Half of all mobile connections in the US will be on 5G by 2025, GSMA Intelligence (GSMAi) predicted.

In a report, the company tipped the US to experience one of the fastest customer migrations to 5G technology, predicting connections will hit 100 million in 2023 and more than 190 million by 2025.

The research company noted its prediction doesn’t include fixed-wireless connections or cellular IoT connections.

GSMAi tipped the large proportion of early adopters in the US as a key driver of 5G migration: “Historically, US consumers have shown a higher propensity to switch to the newest technologies compared to some of the other large developed markets across Asia-Pacific and Europe,” it stated.

Early 5G adopters will be drawn in by new use cases enabled by the technology, including 4K and 8K ultraHD video, 3D video, holograms, augmented and virtual reality devices, and applications for gaming and immersive TV.

Adoption of 5G in Japan is forecast to be similarly high at 45 per cent of connections by 2025, while Europe and China will trail on 31 per cent and 25 per cent respectively. But, due to population differences, both Europe and China will have a greater total number of 5G connections than the US in 2025 despite their lower adoption rates. GSMAi estimated Europe will have 217 million 5G connections while China will lead with 396 million.

But it seems most operators aren’t counting on consumers to be their main source of income in a 5G world. Nearly 70 per cent of operator CEOs across the globe expect incremental opportunities in the enterprise segment to be the main source of 5G revenue.

GSMAi concluded: “Ultimately, operators’ ability to profitably build and operate 5G networks will largely depend on finding models to roll out 5G cost-effectively and cultivating incremental revenue opportunities that can be served with 5G network capabilities.”