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CES 2017: The 5G future will support up to 22 million jobs, Qualcomm says

By 2035, when 5G's full economic benefit should be realized, a broad range of industries supported by 5G could produce up to $12 trillion worth of goods and services, according to a survey from Qualcomm.
Written by Stephanie Condon, Senior Writer
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Qualcomm

At CES 2017, Qualcomm has demonstrated a number of ways its technology will support the 5G future, from powering autonomous drones to connected health care. Giving weight to its investments and innovations, Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf on January 6 shared new research commissioned by Qualcomm to show the impact 5G will have on the future economy.

By 2035, when 5G's full economic benefit should be realized, a broad range of industries supported by 5G could produce up to $12 trillion worth of goods and services, according to the study -- nearly as much as all consumers in the US spent in 2016. Additionally, by 2035, 5G should support up to 22 million jobs -- that's more than the population of Beijing -- and generate $3.5 trillion in revenue.

Over time, the total contributions of 5G to global GDP growth is expected to be equivalent to the size of India, Mollenkopf said, and will have an impact on the world economy "similar to the introduction of electricity or the automobile."

"People truly believe 5G will bring new opportunity," Mollenkopf said, "products and services that have yet to be invented, make education more accessible [and] increase productivity."

5G "will make mobile even more essential than it is today," Mollenkopf said, explaining how the new Snapdragon 835 processor will bring new and improved capabilities like VR to mobile phones.

Meanwhile, Qualcomm also recently announced a collaboration with AT&T and Ericsson to deploy standards-compliant 5G infrastructure, and they recently unveiled the world's first commercial 5G modem chipset solution.

Along with VR, Qualcomm is focused on enabling certain sectors like automotive, as a founding member of the 5G Automotive Association, and the health sector. The company this week announced the expansion of its Qualcomm Life unit. Estimates suggest 40 percent of IoT-related technology will be tied to health care by 2020, Mollenkopf noted.

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