Telecom operators in Western Europe, North America, China and other advanced markets in Asia have continued to roll out 5G networks, overcoming difficulties posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, uncertainties about the role of Huawei, and an unstable economic climate.
However, concerns about the supply of high-end devices towards the end of 2021, including the latest iPhone, poses a risk, albeit temporary, to broader adoption of 5G, the analysis found.
A combination of factors including disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and rising demand have led to global chip shortages that have hampered the availability of some devices and made other more expensive.
For example, the latest games consoles from Microsoft and Sony are still hard to find nearly a year after their release and automakers have had to scale back production on their high-end vehicles. But even the Raspberry Pi, a much lower-powered device that uses older technology, saw its first ever price...