As operators around the world move from early 5G rollouts to more advanced network architectures, two parallel trends are becoming clear: scale still matters, but capability is starting to matter more. From India’s explosive subscriber growth to Europe’s shift toward fully standalone networks, 5G is entering a more mature — and more strategic — phase.
India-based Reliance Jio continues to redefine global 5G scale. The operator’s 5G subscriber base grew nearly 50% year-on-year to 253 million at the end of 2025, according to GSMA Intelligence. That figure places Jio ahead of China Unicom, which reported 235 million 5G connections, and into third place globally. At its current pace of adoption, Jio is on track to surpass China Telecom — the world’s second-largest 5G operator with 303.6 million users — within the next seven months. China Mobile remains the clear global leader, with 636.6 million 5G connections.
While Asia continues to dominate in terms of sheer numbers, European operators are increasingly focused on network evolution. In Sweden, Three has commercially launched 5G SA, becoming the country’s first operator to move to a fully cloud-native 5G core. Powered end-to-end by Ericsson, the deployment enables lower latency, improved performance, and enterprise-focused capabilities such as network slicing and fixed wireless access, highlighting how 5G’s next chapter is shifting from coverage to capability.
Juan Pero Tomas
Editor
RCR Wireless News
RCR Top Stories
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Beyond the Headlines
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What We're Reading
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