according toIn 2023, with the upgrade of Netcom equipment such as small base stations and 5G FWA, and the promotion of 5G private networks by enterprises, it is estimated that the 5G market will reach US$14.5 billion in 2023, and it is expected to rise to US$37 billion by 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 11.0 %, mainly driven by metaverse-related applications during the period, which further stimulated the demand for 5G networks.
According to TrendForce, 5G applications are mainly divided into industrial manufacturing, energy and equipment, medical care, smart vehicles, public transportation and consumer electronics. Based on the 37 billion output value in 2026, industrial manufacturing accounts for 32% of the overall application output value, which is mainly used in the intelligentization of various manufacturing processes in factories, combined with visual analysis applications; followed by 18% in the energy field, which is used for large-scale intelligence Meter networking, power generation monitoring and predictive maintenance, etc.; medical applications accounted for 15%, focusing on remote diagnosis and treatment to improve clinical efficiency in remote areas; smart vehicles and public transportation accounted for 25% of the output value, and 5G’s low-latency characteristics are used in smart vehicles On the one hand, it can accelerate the realization of ADAS (advanced driver assistance system), and public transportation can provide passengers with MaaS (traffic mobility service); consumer electronics account for 10%, mainly connecting various smart home appliances for users.
Metaverse applications will experience explosive growth for at least 2 to 3 years, during which time the 5G market demand will be stimulated
According to TrendForce, the biggest difference between metaverse application services and cloud services is that they pay more attention to multi-party interaction, real-time image rendering and data synchronization, allowing users to transform from simple video communication to a common platform space, through Language, vision, virtual character movements, etc. have deeper interactive communication, and the complexity of data transmission has doubled. In addition, to create a digital twin (Digital Twin) in the Metaverse platform, the best real-time interaction must rely on high-speed and reliable network requirements. To improve the Metaverse application experience.
At present, Metaverse is an emerging application service, and manufacturers are still in the exploratory stage. In addition, technologies such as AR/VR and sensing operations still need time to develop. Therefore, TrendForce believes that the related application needs of Metaverse will take at least 2 to 3 years. The development focus is still on the community, multiplayer games, education, simulation training, co-construction collaboration, virtual meetings, etc.
From the perspective of global telecom operators and network communication equipment manufacturers, Nokia, Ericsson, and Huawei are currently seeing business opportunities in the Metaverse, and have successively invested development resources in network environment and network communication equipment optimization. The high-speed computing required for a large number of real-time virtual interactions in the platform, such as Nokia’s Bell Labs (Bell Labs) research on the two key technologies of human augmentation and digital-physical fusion for the Metaverse; Ericsson’s current 5G core network product – time-critical communication (Time-critical communication) can optimize 5G hardware equipment to ensure the provision of high-reliability real-time services; In addition, it is also deploying 5G hardware equipment in Africa. Safaricom, Kenya’s largest telecommunications company, has adopted the infrastructure built by Huawei, becoming the first 5G commercial high-speed network communication company in East Africa.
