MENA Poised for Fourfold 5G Growth by 2031

Global 5G mobile subscriptions passed the three billion mark during the first quarter of 2026 while 5G Standalone ( SA ) network slicing commercial offerings from CSPs continue to grow significantly. Along with this, uplink mobile data traffic growth is already outpacing downlink for many service providers. According to the June 2026 edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report (EMR), the 162 million new 5G subscriptions added globally during the first quarter of 2026 brought the total past the three