SAN JOSE and TORONTO — Cisco predicts in its latest Annual Internet Report that 5G will support more than 10% of global mobile connections by 2023, with average 5G speeds reaching 575 Mbps by that time.
Overall, global mobile users will total 5.7 billion by 2023 (roughly 71% of the global population), up from 5.1 billion in 2018. Global mobile connections will total 13.1 billion by 2023, up from 8.8 billion in 2018. According to Cisco’s report, approximately 10.6% of these mobile connections will be supported by 5G by 2023.
Looking at the North American market, Cisco says 17% of mobile connections will be supported by 5G by 2023, and drilling down further to Canada, 8.9% of total mobile connections by 2023 here will be supported by 5G. Total 5G connections in Canada will be 8.5 million by 2023, according to Cisco’s forecast for the Canadian market.
In terms of overall mobile speeds, the average cellular speed globally will be 43.9 Mbps by 2023, according to Cisco. In North America, the average mobile speed will reach 60.9 Mbps by 2023, Cisco says. However, 5G is anticipated to deliver speeds 13 times higher than the average mobile speed, reaching average 5G speeds of 575 Mbps by 2023. In its Canadian forecast, the report says the average 5G speed in Canada will be 602.6 Mbps by 2023. In comparison, by 2023 the average 4G speed in 
Canada will be 77 Mbps (up from 39.6 Mbps in 2018).
The Cisco report looked at a number of other trends, including Internet growth, machine-to-machine (M2M) connections, video-capable devices, Wi-Fi speeds, and more.
According to Cisco, there will be 5.3 billion global Internet users (nearly 66% of the world population) by 2023, up from 3.9 billion in 2018. The total number of Internet-connected devices will be 29.3 billion by 2023, up from 18.4 billion in 2018. Of these, M2M connections will account for about 50% of total device connections by 2023, according to the report
Global fixed broadband speeds are expected to reach 110 Mbps by 2023, up from an average of 45.9 Mbps in 2018. By 2023, nearly half (47%) of all global connected devices will be video capable. In addition, two-thirds of connected flat panel TVs will support 4K video by 2023, Cisco says.
The report’s Canadian forecast says there will be 35.3 million total Internet users (91% of the Canadian population) by 2023, up from 33.2 million in 2018, and 423.1 million networked devices by 2023, up from 245.6 million in 2018. M2M modules will account for 64% of all networked devices in Canada by 2023 and smartphones and connected TVs will account for 8% and 13%, respectively, of all networked devices here by 2023. Furthermore, 4K TVs will account for 62% of all flat panel TVs in Canada by 2023.
Average fixed broadband speeds in Canada will reach 136.4 Mbps by 2023, up from 48.2 Mbps in 2018 and average Wi-Fi speeds will increase to 109 Mbps by 2023, up from 39.8 Mbps in 2018. Finally, the average mobile connection speed in Canada will reach 92.3 Mbps in 2023, up from 33.3 Mbps in 2018.
The number of mobile users in Canada will total 30.2 million (78% of the population) by 2023, up from 27.5 million in 2018 and there will be 95.9 million mobile connected devices in Canada by 2023, which works out to 2.5 devices per capita, Cisco says. This compares to the reported 47 million mobile connected devices in Canada in 2018, which represented 1.3 devices per capita.
For more information about the Cisco Annual Internet Report, please click here.
