Investments in 5G Network Infrastructure to Reach 21.3% of Total Wireless Infrastructure
“Investment in wireless infrastructure continues to gain momentum, as a growing number of CSPs are prioritizing 5G projects by reusing current assets including radio spectrum bandwidths, base stations, core network and transport network, and transitioning LTE/4G spend to maintenance mode,” said Kosei Takiishi, senior research director at Gartner. “Early 5G adopters are driving greater competition among CSPs. In addition, governments and regulators are fostering mobile network development and betting that it will be a catalyst and multiplier for widespread economic growth across many industries.”
Rising competition among CSPs is causing the pace of 5G adoption to accelerate. New O-RAN (open radio access network) and vRAN (virtualized RAN) ecosystem could disrupt current vendor-lock-in and promote 5G adoption by providing cost-efficient and agile 5G products in the future. Gartner predicts that CSPs in Greater China (China, Taiwan and Hong Kong), mature Asia/Pacific, North America and Japan will reach 5G coverage across 95% of national populations by 2023.
Table 1: Wireless Infrastructure Spending Forecast, Worldwide, 2019-2020 (Millions of U.S. Dollars)
| Segment | 2019 | 2019 Growth (%) | 2020 | 2020 Growth (%) |
| 5G | 4,146.6 | 576.6 | 8,127.3 | 96.0 |
| LTE and 4G | 20,693.2 | 1.2 | 16,402.0 | -20.8 |
| 3G | 4,146.6 | -25.7 | 2,608.4 | -37.1 |
| 2G | 797.4 | -46.9 | 472.2 | -40.8 |
| Small Cells | 5,342.7 | 11.6 | 5,736.6 | 7.4 |
| Mobile Core | 4,744.7 | 3.2 | 4,780.3 | 0.3 |
| Total | 39,871.2 | 6.2 | 38,126.7 | -4.4 |
Due to rounding, some figures may not add up precisely to the totals shown.
Source: Gartner (July 2020)
“Despite investment growth rates in 5G being slightly lower in 2020 due to the COVID-19 crisis (excluding Greater China and Japan), CSPs in all regions are quickly pivoting new and discretionary spend to build out the 5G network and 5G as a platform,” said Mr. Takiishi.
Over the short-term, Greater China leads the world in 5G development, with 49.4% of worldwide investment in 2020 attributed to the region. Cost-effective infrastructure manufactured in China coupled with state sponsorship and reduced regulatory barriers is paving the way for major CSPs in China to quickly build 5G coverage. “However, other early-adopting and technologically adept nations are not far behind,” said Mr. Takiishi.
Gartner expects that 5G investment will rebound modestly in 2021 as CSPs seek to capitalize on changed behaviors sparked by populations’ elevated reliance on communication networks. 5G investment will exceed LTE/4G in 2022.
CSPs will gradually add stand-alone (SA) capabilities to their non-stand-alone (NSA) 5G networks, and Gartner predicts by 2023, 15% of CSPs worldwide will operate stand-alone 5G networks that do not rely on 4G network infrastructure. This will rapidly divert wireless investment away from LTE/4G and spending on legacy RAN infrastructure will rapidly decline.
