A Snapshot into 5G Availability Across the Globe

The next-generation network, 5G is predicted to change the world, forming the foundation of the future digital economy and helping to address social and business challenges. 

As 5G continues to advance, countries across the globe are adopting the technology at an increasingly rapid pace, with leading communication service providers across the world working hard to build, validate, and deploy 5G networks to benefit businesses and people in their location. Recent industry data released by VIAVI reported 635 new 5G cities in 2021, contributing to the total of 1,947 5G cities with 5G capability globally.

The following article outlines the progress of 5G technology adoption across several countries on the continents of North America, Europe, Asia & Oceania. For more information on 5G deployment across the globe, see VIAVI’s newest ‘State of 5G’ Report.

North America

The United States was the first country to open a high-band spectrum for 5G technology. In 2016, the Federal Communications Committee started laying the groundwork for 5G by defining rules around the development and deployment of the technology.  

Several carriers are currently working on developing, testing, and deploying components of 5G networks across the United States. However, 5G network deployment across the United States has been limited in scope, primarily due to deployment challenges, municipality regulations, testing requirements, and costs. In January 2020, 5G had been deployed in 50 cities across the United States including Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington. It is predicted that by 2023, up to 32 percent of mobile connections in North America mobile connections will be powered by a 5G network. 

Europe

According to the 5G observatory, in January 2022, there were 15 European countries with commercial 5G services. In Europe, there are also 5G corridors spanning road, train, and nautical routes that facilitate seamless connectivity across countries. 

Europe has not faced the same concerns that other countries and continents have around the 5G spectrum interfering with aviation. As such, the rollout of the technology has not faced the same delays. The UK was the second country to deploy 3.8 to 4.2 GHz for 5G and to date, there have been no reports of problems arising around airports that operate under 5G networks. 

Asia

5G is expanding rapidly in China with the country’s biggest operators adding more and more 5G customers each month. According to the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the country has over 700 million 5G subscribers and over 1.3 million 5G base stations. 

In South Korea, the deployment of 5G has been relatively quick, with 27 percent of total cellular subscribers currently on 5G services provided by three major companies offering rapid 5G download speeds.  According to a 2021 report by OpenSignal, South Korea has the highest availability of 5G of any country in the world.

On the other hand, India is lagging when it comes to 5G technology adoption. This is unsurprising as the country didn’t launch 4G until 2012. It is predicted that India will launch its 5G network by the end of 2022, with the government recently revealing that 5G technology is currently in its final stages of development. With the second-largest mobile market in the world, it is predicted that India’s uptake of 5G technology will accelerate global adoption of 4G as well as create a huge market of mid-tier and entry-level 5G devices, as occurred with 4G.  

Japan currently has four operators offering 5G technology, however, availability is still not widespread in terms of overall coverage. The issue with deploying 5G in Japan is that the country only has a high band 5G, which has more difficulty propagating than lower bands. This coverage issue may be resolved with the introduction of more open-source, low-cost devices. 

Oceana

Australia has three main 5G operators, but the difficulty with deploying 5G networks in Australia is the significant size of the country, which creates a discrepancy between network distribution in the major cities and the sparsely populated rural population. Servicing the 85 percent of the population that lives within 50 km of the coast will be relatively easy for major providers, however, it will be much more difficult to service rural communities with 5G technology. 

In Conclusion

The 5G network will revolutionize the way people live and work across the world and countries in all corners of the globe will continue to invest in infrastructure that supports the 5G network, increasing global coverage over the next few years.  

VIAVI Solutions implements new fiber networks and executes quality assurance on existing networks. We can assist with 5G validation, 5G testing, and 5G visibility as well as provide end-to-end network solutions through 350+ global Channel Partners to meet your needs. Contact us for more information.