While India is waiting to see the launch of new generation network technology - 5G; there are over 72 countries which already have it. Over 1947 cities in these 72 countries are covered with 5G networks, says VIAVI report. Even though the COVID-19 slowed things down for the world, globally, a new city was added to the 5G list every two days. The countries to recently go live with 5G were Argentina, Bhutan, Kenya, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Malta and Mauritius. All of these nations got 5G in the second half of 2022.
China and the US Have the Most Number of 5G Sites
The leading names in the list for having the most number of 5G cities were China and the United States (US). As per the report, China has the most number of 5G cities - 356 in total, and the United States has over 296 cities with 5G networks. In the third spot globally stood the Philippines, with a total of 98 cities covered with 5G networks.
The report from VIAVI suggests that currently, most cities are covered with 5G NSA (non-standalone networks). Only 24 5G SA networks exist globally. This is because 5G SA is pretty expensive for the telecom operators to deploy, while 5G NSA can be deployed on top of existing 4G cores.
But for the next generation use cases of 5G networks to come alive, 5G SA would be required. 5G NSA would be mostly focused on delivering eMBB (enhanced mobile broadband).
The report also highlights the growth of the Open RAN ecosystem, which combines the mobile operators with software and infrastructure providers who are looking to develop an open and virtualised Radio Access Network (RAN) with embedded AI (artificial intelligence) control. Currently, there are over 23 live deployments of oRAN networks, while 34 are still in the trial phase. oRAN networks are still pretty new in the world of technology and will take a few more years to mature for a widespread globally.
