In fourth place

Western Europe is catching up with 5G use, according to Ericsson

One in four mobile phone contracts in Western Europe now allows the use of the faster 5G network. However, with a market penetration of 26%, Western European mobile network providers are only in fourth place in an international comparison, according to an Ericsson analysis.

North America (59%) is in the lead, followed by North East Asia (41%) and the Gulf Cooperation Council region (34%). According to the study, the number of 5G mobile contracts is increasing in all regions worldwide and will reach 1.7 billion by the end of the first quarter of 2024.

However, the Ericsson Mobility Report published in Stockholm on Wednesday predicts a neck-and-neck race and a change in the top positions in the future. By 2029, the study expects Western Europe to catch up to third place in 5G usage, with 86 percent of all contracts, directly behind North America (90 percent) and the Gulf Cooperation Council region (89 percent). North East Asia is in danger of falling behind with 80%.

The fifth generation of mobile communications (5G) offers significantly higher data transmission rates than the previous UMTS (3G) and LTE (4G) standards. In addition, the delay time (latency) is reduced, which makes 5G usable for real-time applications such as remote machine control or telemedicine applications. 5G technology is also better suited than 3G or 4G for bringing large crowds online, such as visitors to a large soccer stadium.

Technical shortcoming
According to Ericsson, the boom in 5G use in Western Europe is being held back by a technical shortcoming. Although the frequencies below 1 gigahertz, which have been frequently used to date, enable wide-area coverage, they cannot keep up with the frequencies in the medium spectrum around 3.5 GHz in terms of capacity and speed. This reduces the user experience, as too much time elapses between the user's "click" and the time when a video is played or a website is loaded.