5G networks have now become part of everyday life in most of the world’s leading nations as the technology continues to spread across the world.
A report from Viavi states that 47 of the world’s top 70 economies by GDP have live 5G networks in operation. This includes 2,497 cities worldwide with commercial 5G networks spread across 92 nations.
18 nations, including India, Mexico, Angola, Ethiopia, and Guatemala, declared their initial 5G rollouts in 2022, and 32 nations have already declared their intent to build 5G networks, while 23 other nations are conducting pre-commercial 5G testing. Only 48 countries, largely tiny island states, have not yet made their 5G plans public.
5G progress
Additionally, there are already 45 standalone 5G networks operating across 45 different countries.
With 503 cities now offering 5G networks, a 69% increase from May 2022, the United States has surpassed China to take the top spot for 5G-enabled cities, whereas China's number has remained constant at 356 from June 2021. However, China continues to lead the US in other crucial statistics including data speeds, 5G subscribers, and base station deployment.
Nearly half (44%) of publicly announced private 5G deployments are in the manufacturing sector, the report claims, followed by logistics, education, transportation, sports, utilities, and mining. This indicates that the implementation of private 5G is being tackled pragmatically, with businesses addressing connectivity issues and the most promising smart applications emerging as the leaders in private 5G.
“2022 was 5G’s graduation year,” commented Sameh Yamany, CTO at VIAVI Solutions.
“It evolved from being a developed markets phenomenon into a global phenomenon. On a technical level too, with a near doubling of Standalone 5G networks, the capabilities of 5G have expanded significantly and we can look forward to more sophisticated network and business capabilities from operators. In the coming year, a major focus will be network quality and the further development of Open RAN technologies.”
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