5G industry to be worth $1.2 trillion by 2026: Ericsson

The 5G business will be worth $1.2 trillion by 2026, according to networking giant Ericsson, which has unveiled a swathe of programs towards 5G network readiness in 2020.

"5G is no longer just a buzzword," Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm said at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona on Monday morning.

Ericsson has forecast that of the $1.233 trillion value, 20 percent will be made up by energy utilities; 19 percent by manufacturing; 13 percent by public safety; 13 percent by healthcare; 10 percent by media and entertainment; 10 percent by public transport; 8 percent by automotive; and 6 percent by financial services.

"5G will be a major technology in growing industrial digitalisation, creating and enhancing industry digitalisation use cases such as immersive gaming, autonomous driving, remote robotic surgery, and augmented reality support in maintenance and repair situations," Ericsson said in its 5G Business Potential paper.

"The largest opportunity will be seen in the energy and utilities industry, closely followed by the manufacturing and public safety sectors."

Ericsson also identified three "families" of use cases and applications: Massive machine-type communications; critical machine-type communications; and enhanced mobile broadband for mass mobile connectivity.

In addition to its 5G new radio (NR) trials with Telstra, announced on Sunday, Ekholm said Ericsson has also partnered with Japanese telecommunications provider NTT DoCoMo and European giant Vodafone.

"We are very happy to announce this morning new 5G new radio trials with NTT DoCoMo, Vodafone, and Telstra," Ekholm said.

"5G goes beyond the regular operator business; it's a business revolution. And I think it's a way for our customers to increase their relevance yet again."

The 5G NR trial with Telstra will see the two companies conduct interoperability testing and an over-the-air field trial using the current 5G NR specifications provided by 3GPP during the second half of 2017 in partnership with Qualcomm.

For the trial, Ericsson will make use of millimetre-wave (mmWave) spectrum technologies at higher-frequency bands to increase network capacity and allow for multi-gigabit speeds across the 28GHz, 39GHz and sub-6GHz spectrum bands, as well as Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) antenna technology along with beam forming and beam tracking, Ericsson senior VP and chief strategy and technology officer Ulf Ewaldsson said on Sunday.

Ericsson also used its MWC media and analyst press conference on Monday to announce its Connected Vehicle Marketplace; its launch of gigabit-speed LTE with US mobile carrier T-Mobile; and its media content-delivery solution with Telstra and 21st Century Fox.