There are now over 199 5G supported devices announced all over the world, including 63 smartphones, 13 hostpots (Mifi) and 61 CPEs for fixed wireless access (FWA) 5G broadband service.
According to a latest report from GSA, the Global mobile Suppliers Association, during 2019 the number of announced 5G devices has grown rapidly, starting with a few announcements and then gathering pace as operators in various parts of the world launched their first commercial 5G services.
By mid-December 2019, GSA said it had identified the following 5G devices:
- sixteen announced form factors (phones, head-mounted display, hotspots, indoor CPE, outdoor CPE, laptops/notebooks, modules, snap-on dongles/adapters, routers, drones, robots, tablets, TVs, a switch, a USB terminal and a vending machine).
- seventy-six vendors that had announced available or forthcoming 5G devices.
- one hundred and ninety-nine announced devices (including regional variants, and phones that can be upgraded using a separate adapter, but excluding both prototypes not expected to be commercialised and operator-branded devices that are essentially rebadged versions of other phones), including at least 47 that are commercially available (up from 42 in mid-December and around 20 commercially available devices in June 2019):
- sixty-three (63) phones, at least twenty-nine of which are now commercially available, (including three that can be 5G-enabled with an adapter)
- thirteen (13) hotspots (including regional variants), at least seven of which are now commercially available
- sixty-one (61) CPE (customer-premises equipment) devices (indoor and outdoor, including two Verizon-spec compliant devices not meeting 3GPP 5G standards) at least nine of which are now believed to be commercially available
- thirty-four (34) modules
- seven (7) routers
- three (3) robots
- three (3) televisions
- two (2) snap-on dongles/adapters
- three (3) tablets
- two (2) drones
- two (2) head-mounted displays
- two (2) laptops (notebooks)
- one (1) switch
- two (2) USB terminals/dongles
- one (1) vending machine
Nearly 60% of all announced fifth generation devices are identified as supporting sub-6 GHz spectrum bands. Nearly one-third are understood to support mmWave spectrum.
Only 15 of the commercially available devices (just under one third of them) are known to support services operating in mmWave spectrum.
The bands known to be most supported by announced 5G devices are n78 (3.5Ghz), n41 (2.5Ghz), n79 (4.7Ghz) and n77 (3.7Ghz).
With multiple announcements of 5G launches in recent weeks, GSA now counts 56 operators in 31 countries that have launched one or more 3GPPcompliant commercial 5G services (some with smart phones; some with 5G routers; some offering services widely; some with limited geographic, device or and customer availability). These include 46 fifth generation mobile services (including 3 limited availability launches) and 29 5G FWA or home broadband services (8 limited availability).
To date, 342 operators are investing in 5G networks in the form of tests, trials, pilots, planned and actual deployments. 75 operators have announced that they have deployed 3GPP-compliant fifth generation technology in their networks, making them 5G-ready.
[Download PDF]– GSA 5G Device Ecosystem Report December 2019
