88% of new 5G devices support standalone

The Global Certification Forum (GCF) has published in July 2022 its annual Mobile Device Trends report, which includes an analysis of wireless device certification data for 2021 and the first quarter of 2022.

GCF is a non-profit group that verifies mobile products to ensure they are of sufficiently high quality, secure, reliable and interoperable.

There are 150 OEMs from 25 countries participating in its certification programmes, giving it a good bird’s eye view of how the device market is evolving.

GCF highlighted that in 2021 it certified 609 new device models from 89 manufacturers. Of that total, 31 percent supported 5G, up from 21 percent in 2020. The proportion of those 5G devices with standalone support surged to 65 percent from 34 percent back in 2021 .

This rate continues to grow and, in 2022 year-to-date, the proportion of 5G devices supporting 5G SA is approaching 90%.

You can see from below graph the penetration of 5G standalone (SA) support among mobile devices consolidated in Q1 2022.