GSMA Highlights 5G SA Revenue Potential

The GSMA predicts that standalone 5G will drive 70% of all enterprise revenue expansion until 2030. The association claims it represents a $127 billion opportunity for the industry.

Director General Mats Granryd stressed the need for the industry to complete a transition to SA 5G as the organization released its Mobile Economy Report 2025, in which it asserted the standalone variant will be key to fully realizing the potential of 5G-Advanced. The Association noted the rollout of SA 5G networks is starting to gain momentum following a slow start, with 60 operators globally offering commercial services on the architecture as of December 2024.

It found the greatest number of operators in Asia-Pacific, followed by Europe. The GSMA also found mobile technologies and services generated 5.8% of global GDP in 2024, $6.5 trillion of economic value. By 2030, the amount is expected to rise to nearly $11 trillion, or 8.4% of GDP, as countries benefit from improvements in productivity and efficiency enabled by the uptake of mobile services and digital technologies, including 5G, IoT, and AI.

It predicts the main beneficiaries to include businesses in manufacturing (25%), accommodation and food services (17%), and public administration (14%). The GSMA estimates 58% of the world’s population used mobile internet at end-2024 and projected this to rise to 5.5 billion users (64%) by 2030. It stated global 5G connections surpassed 2 billion in 2024, predicting the technology would overtake 4G in 2028 and account for half of all connections by 2030.