After 5 months, there is enough data for a (very rough) starting point for estimating 5G subscribers. In Korea, market leaders SK and KT both are confident 10% of Koreans will have 5G by the end of 2019 and 30% by the end of 2020.
I can not predict subscribers with any accuracy, although I believe I’ve done more research than most who issue predictions.
I’ve created this table (below) of the population of 13 regions and how many people represent 5%, 10%, 20%, 30%, and 50%. I’ve then put a year when the subscribers in each region might reach each percentage, based on the very limited data available.
Very few companies have provided an estimate of coverage for most dates and almost none have estimates of subscriber totals. Korea after 4 months reached 2 million subscribers in a population of 51 million. China sold more than 1 million phones in the first two weeks. No carrier in the rest of the world has released any figures and I believe their actual total in September 2019 are very small.
[table id=2 /]