5G uptake in the Asia-Pacific region is set to accelerate at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.4%, from 2.7 billion in 2025 to 4.6 billion in 2030. This growth reflects the rapid adoption of low-cost 5G devices, continued network rollouts in markets such as India, Malaysia and Thailand, and forthcoming service launches in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
Sarwat Zeeshan, Telecom Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Government initiatives, enterprise digital transformation efforts, and growing demand for high-performance connectivity needed for evolving applications areas like smart manufacturing, autonomous mobility, cloud gaming, etc are accelerating standalone 5G deployments and driving 5G service adoption in the region.
Governments and telecom regulatory bodies in Australia, China, India, South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan have launched national 5G strategies/action plans, outlining the vision and guidelines to establish 5G ecosystems and drive 5G coverage expansions. These action plans include supporting initiatives such as public sector investment in 5G applications, favorable tax incentives, forums for industry-government collaboration, promotion of 5G led-technological innovations, and license arrangements to enhance spectrum use and reuse.
Zeeshan continues: “China will remain the largest 5G market in the world through the forecast period with about 75% of its total mobile subscriptions to be on 5G network by 2029, primarily driven by investments and the regulator’s efforts to expand 5G service coverage to rural areas and industrial parks, and boost 5G adoption.”
For instance, China had deployed about 4.2 million 5G base stations in 2024 and increased the count to 4.6 million by the end of September 2025, further enhancing its network capacity and reach.
The ongoing 5G network expansions by telecom operators in APAC markets will also lend traction to the market. According to GSMA, telcos in the APAC region are planning to invest $254 billion in network infrastructure through 2030, with the major focus on 5G deployments.
These 5G network expansions present revenue generation opportunity for telcos, by allowing them to generate higher ARPUs by selling premium 5G mobile plans and increase revenues by offering enterprise connectivity solutions such as private 5G. The synergies between 5G’s speed and reliability and emerging technologies such as AI, data analytics, and M2M/IoT will allow telcos to be innovative and grow their customer base in industry verticals like health, manufacturing, and mining.
Zeeshan concludes: “APAC has become the center of the technological race for 5G+ supremacy. South Korea, Japan, and China have gone beyond just the deployment of 5G, to the development of the wider 5G ecosystem, thereby supporting the manufacturing and IT industries in these countries and driving IoT/M2M opportunities.”
