Growth of 5G networks and the arrival of cloud-native 6G networks will result in a 110 percent increase in cellular data over the next four years.
A new survey report by Juniper Research has now revealed that cellular data operators will invest $26 billion in cloud services in 2024, with expenditure growing to $65 billion in 2028. Telecommunications cloud refers to the implementation of cloud technology, services, and architecture into operator core networks, with this centralisation enabling operators to develop automated network management systems.
The survey report also highlighted that the growth of 5G networks and the arrival of cloud-native 6G networks will result in a 110 percent increase in cellular data over the next four years. This growth will be driven by the rising adoption of data-intensive IoT use cases, such as automated manufacturing and vehicle infotainment systems. To manage this substantial growth in cellular data, operators must leverage cloud-based network management systems to automate the management of network resources in real-time and at a local level.
Critical to this automation will be machine learning, which will enable real-time traffic analysis; enabling automatic changes to network resources in response to unexpected traffic patterns. This will prevent congestion from sudden increases in cellular data on operator networks; protecting quality of service. Additionally, the report predicts that cloud technologies will be instrumental in enabling operators to achieve sustainability targets. Operators will use machine learning to automate network management; reducing power to network elements when user demand is low.
Research author Alex Webb said, “Telecommunications networks are becoming more complex; requiring increasingly automated network management systems. However, operators must insulate mission-critical traffic when reducing power, to guarantee quality of service for enterprises.”
According to Webb, of 2023, there were 296 commercial 5G networks worldwide, with Juniper Research forecasting the total number of 5G connections to increase from 2.2 billion in 2024 to 5.9 billion in 2028. This represents a growth of 172 percent over the next four years. The deployment of 5G networks will drive the adoption of cloud technologies in operator networks as its architecture increases the necessity and opportunity for cloudification.
