Spirent Communications Releases its Third Annual 5G Outlook Report
February 10, 2022
News
Spirent Communications released its third annual 5G outlook report, based on analysis and takeaways from over 800 new global 5G engagements in 2021.
The “5G 2022: Market Drivers, Insights & Considerations” report provides insights from across the 5G ecosystem on the current status of 5G, revealing geographic trends, technology advancements, and revenue-generating use cases.
The report draws on Spirent’s work with service providers, network equipment manufacturers, governments, device makers, and cloud players worldwide. It provides an update on the developments along the journey to global 5G. Key findings from the report include:
- Geographic Trends – Spirent’s 5G business in the Americas grew by more than 40% in 2021, with a focus on service assurance, standalone (SA) core, cloud testing, and service experience. The EMEA market saw more than 60% growth in engagements after pandemic-induced delays in 2020. Attention centered on the 5G core and automation. With China taking the lead in the APAC region, network coverage, densification, and subscriber growth continued to drive demand for multi-speed transport network testing and device testing.
- Revenue-Generating Use Cases – Operators are evaluating key areas where they can mine meaningful revenues. These areas include Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), mobile multi-player gaming, augmented and virtual reality, security surveillance, content delivery networks, 5G speed boosters, and 5G multi-view experiences.
- 5G Core and Cloud – Spirent is engaged with more than 40 unique operators worldwide, including multi-country providers. There have been at least 19 small commercial launches to date, with more than 90 trials and vendor selection processes underway. And where there’s core, there’s cloud. Core and cloud combined now represent more than one-third of Spirent’s 5G work.
- Private 5G Networks – Spirent estimates that the number of private LTE or 5G networks will explode from around 3,000 today to more than 14,000 in just a few years. The growth will be driven by trends including enterprise digitalization strategies advanced by 5G and Wi-Fi 6 convergence, capitalizing on breakthrough technologies across IoT, big data analytics, and intelligent automation.
- 6G Vision - The industry is beginning to coalesce around key ambitions. Chief among them is the combination of physical, digital, and biological worlds into metaverse-like realms where holographic, tactile feedback, and physiological sensations can be transmitted. Remote operation of industrial machinery and virtual teleportation represent the earliest conceptions of possibilities.
“Spirent has embarked on 1,800 5G engagements to date. In 2021 we saw service provider engagements increase by 56% year-on-year as customers race to make 5G a reality,” said Spirent’s Head of Market Strategy, Steve Douglas. “Market competition intensified and the impact of the pandemic accelerated business automation plans. As a result, service providers established early partnerships with public cloud providers, and almost half of service provider activity focused on service assurance and service experience, including competitive benchmarking.
Check out Embedded Computing Design's Embedded Insiders Podcast featuring Steve Douglas, where he talks about the 5G trends we can expect to impact the embedded edge in 2022 and the tech from 3GPP Release 17, Release 18, and beyond. Tune in here.
For more information, please visit www.spirent.com.
