Qualcomm president Cristiano Amon (pictured) flagged mmWave spectrum as critical to fulfil the promise of 5G, predicting widespread deployments in the band will quickly follow initial mid-band launches.

During an analyst event in New York, Amon noted “certain use cases in the smartphone will not be possible without mmWave”.

For instance, he said the high bandwidth offered by mmWave will be necessary to enable opportunities for mobile gaming and video content creation and consumption. A number of industrial applications will also rely on mmWave, he added.

Unlike the move to 4G, Amon said 5G is coming online in multiple geographies at the same time, accelerating the transition to next generation technology.

He said “it’s fair to expect by 2020 you’re going to have all metropolitan areas with 5G coverage”. While most initial deployments will use sub-6GHz spectrum, he noted a handful of countries including the US, Japan, South Korea and Russia will use mmWave.

But mmWave deployments will quickly expand, and by 2021 he said nearly all developing economies are expected to use high-frequency spectrum in their 5G networks.

As coverage becomes widely available and 5G technology becomes available in mid-range devices, Reuters reported Qualcomm predicted 5G device shipments will jump from an estimated 200 million in 2020 to 450 million in 2021. By 2022, Qualcomm expects 5G device shipments to hit 750 million.