Asia drives global 5G growth but advanced services lag

5G standlaone rollout, slicing adoption and monetisation vary widely across Asian markets.

5G subscriptions across Asia continue to expand rapidly, whilst operators in the region move at different speeds in deploying advanced capabilities such as 5G Standalone (SA), network slicing, and differentiated connectivity services.

The Ericsson Mobility Report from June said global 5G subscriptions increased by 162 million in the first quarter of 2026, bringing the total to 3.1 billion.

Asia remains a key growth engine for global 5G adoption, led by large-scale markets such as China and India, alongside accelerating uptake in Southeast Asia.

However, the report shows that the commercialisation of advanced 5G services remains uneven across the region.

While some operators in North East Asia are already scaling 5G SA capabilities and experimenting with differentiated connectivity, most markets in South East Asia and Oceania are still focused on coverage expansion and incremental performance improvements.

Only a limited number of operators in the region have deployed nationwide 5G SA networks.

Singapore was highlighted as one of the more advanced Southeast Asian markets, with 5G increasingly integrated into enterprise use cases such as secure mobile workspaces.

Globally, Ericsson noted that 5G SA-based network slicing services are expanding, with 84 commercial offerings identified across service providers, up from 65 six months earlier. However, these deployments remain concentrated in early-adopter markets across Europe, North America, and select Asian operators.

The report also pointed to a structural shift in traffic patterns, with uplink demand growing faster than downlink in many networks.

Across 55 operators measured, 43 recorded higher uplink growth rates than downlink, driven by increased use of collaboration tools, user-generated content, and cloud-based applications.

Ericsson said emerging AI-driven applications, including smartglasses and agentic AI systems, are expected to further increase uplink intensity over the forecast period.

The report forecasts that global mobile data traffic will continue growing strongly, with total mobile network traffic expected to more than double by 2031.

In Asia, operators are expected to play a central role in scaling new monetisation models such as fixed wireless access (FWA), network APIs and differentiated connectivity.

The report, however, flagged that adoption speed will vary significantly by market depending on spectrum availability, 5G SA rollout, and device readiness.

Ericsson also noted that 5G subscriptions will account for around two-thirds of global mobile subscriptions by 2031, with Asia remaining the largest regional contributor to total volume.

The company added that early discussions around 6G standardisation are underway, with commercial deployment expected around 2030.