5G Network Growth: 5G Available in 378 Cities Globally, According to VIAVI Report

In a recent release, Viavi Solutions revealed new industry data that indicates a rapid surge in the spread of 5G technology over the last year. As of January 2020, commercial 5G networks have been deployed in 378 cities across 34 countries, according to the new VIAVI report, “The State of 5G Deployments.”

South Korea leads the world at 85 cities with 5G availability, followed by China with 57, the United States at 50, and the U.K., with 31. In terms of regional coverage, EMEA is ahead, having 168 cities where 5G networks have been deployed, Asia is second with 156 cities, and only 54 cities are covered by 5G across the Americas. Deployments include both mobile and fixed wireless 5G networks, under the report’s parameters.

The report’s findings indicate that a number of operators are blanketing the largest population centers, with as many as five communications service providers (CSPs) deploying 5G in cities such as Los Angeles and New York.

 “For 5G operators there is a heady mixture of optimism and fear,” said Sameh Yamany, CTO, VIAVI. “The optimism is related to a plethora of new commercial applications that could change operator economics for the better, even though they may not feel the commercial impact for some time. The immediate fear is that they will get left behind in the short-term marketing battle by rival operators if they’re not fast enough in their landgrab. Nonetheless, very quickly, the overarching driver will change from simply having 5G network availability to having the best 5G networks. Even as operators continue their 5G build-out, they will simultaneously have to shift gears from network validation and verification through to advanced analytics and automated network troubleshooting. The race for the best 5G network has only just begun.”

The company compiled the data from publicly available sources for information purposes only, as part of its practice of tracking trends to enable technology development. The State of 5G Deployments report, now in its fourth year, serves as a companion document to the VIAVI Gigabit Monitor, a visual database of gigabit internet deployments worldwide.