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Ericsson: 5G Passes Three Billion Subscriptions as Smartphone Uploads Accelerate
Ericsson’s June 2026 Mobility Report says 5G subscriptions passed 3.1 billion in the first quarter, while rising upload demand from mobile apps is reshaping network priorities.
Global 5G adoption has crossed a major threshold, but Ericsson’s latest mobile industry data points to a second shift that may matter just as much for smartphone users: mobile networks are carrying more data from devices back into the network.
In its June 2026 Mobility Report announcement, published on June 16, Ericsson said the number of 5G subscriptions reached 3.1 billion during the first quarter of 2026. The figure includes 162 million new subscriptions added during the quarter.
5G adoption keeps moving into the mainstream
Ericsson’s figure refers to subscriptions rather than individual people. A single person can have more than one mobile subscription, and the number does not mean that every subscription is connected to a unique smartphone user. It is nevertheless a useful measure of how quickly 5G is becoming part of the global mobile infrastructure.
According to Ericsson, about 390 communications service providers have launched commercial 5G services, while more than 90 have introduced 5G Standalone, or 5G SA. Unlike non-standalone 5G, which often relies on an existing 4G core, 5G SA is designed to support more advanced network functions, including differentiated connectivity and network slicing.
Ericsson reported that 5G networks carried 48 percent of all mobile data traffic at the end of 2025. Its forecast suggests that share could rise to 85 percent by the end of 2031. That is a forecast rather than a guarantee, and the pace will vary by market, spectrum availability, device support and operator investment.
Why the upload side of mobile data is changing
The report’s most relevant finding for app-heavy smartphone users concerns uplink traffic: the data sent from a phone to the network. Video calls, collaboration tools, cloud backups, live broadcasts and social platforms all depend on reliable uploads, not just fast downloads.
Ericsson measured traffic from 55 service providers and found that uplink traffic grew faster than downlink traffic at 43 of them. At 17 providers, uplink growth was more than 1.5 times higher than downlink growth. Ericsson identifies smartphone communication and collaboration apps, user-generated content sharing and cloud storage as the main current drivers.
That does not mean every phone will suddenly upload faster. It does mean operators are facing a more balanced traffic problem. For years, mobile networks were commonly planned around the assumption that customers would consume far more data than they sent. More camera uploads, group video calls and cloud-synchronised media put greater pressure on the return path.
Ericsson’s scenario modelling also suggests that additional AI traffic could push uplink traffic to more than three times its 2025 level by 2031. This is a modelled scenario, not a measured result, and it depends on how AI services are built. Applications that process more information on a phone may reduce some network traffic, while cloud-based assistants, live multimodal services and connected devices could increase it.
Network slicing moves beyond the laboratory
The report also tracks the commercial growth of differentiated connectivity based on 5G SA network slicing. A network slice reserves or prioritises network resources for a specific use case, allowing an operator to offer different performance characteristics for applications that need them.
Ericsson counted 84 commercial differentiated-connectivity offerings in June, up from 65 in its November 2025 report. The company presents that increase as evidence that network slicing is moving from early deployment toward broader commercial use.
For smartphone owners, network slicing is unlikely to appear as a new setting on the handset. Its effect would instead be felt through services whose operators have arranged specific performance targets, such as business connectivity, live event services or latency-sensitive applications. Availability and quality will depend on the operator, market and supported device or service.
5G fixed wireless access is also expanding
Ericsson says 71 percent of fixed wireless access providers now offer service over 5G, compared with 57 percent in June 2025. Fixed wireless access uses mobile networks to provide broadband to homes or businesses, often through a dedicated router rather than a phone.
The report also says that 57 percent of FWA providers offer speed-based tariff plans, up from 51 percent a year earlier. New 5G FWA launches in markets including Algeria, Argentina, Bangladesh, Morocco, Taiwan, Türkiye and Vietnam show that operators are using 5G for more than traditional smartphone plans.
6G remains a longer-term horizon
Ericsson’s report also discusses early 6G standardisation work. It expects the first implementable 6G specifications to be finalised around the end of 2028 or the beginning of 2029, with initial commercial services expected around 2030. Those dates are industry expectations, not confirmed launch schedules.
For now, the practical message is about 5G. The technology is scaling globally, but the next challenge is making networks cope with more demanding applications and more data moving in both directions. As smartphone apps become more collaborative, visual and AI-enabled, upload capacity will be an increasingly important part of the mobile experience.
Source: Ericsson Mobility Report June 2026.