Some 402 telecoms operators in 129 countries are investing in 5G networks in the form of tests, trials, pilots, planned and commercial deployments, according to a recent report from GSA, the Global mobile Suppliers Association.
Out of these, some 112 operators in 47 countries/territories have launched commercial 5G services for consumers.
Global mobile statistic, as of October 2020:
4G LTE
- There are 795 operators with commercially launched LTE networks (offering broadband fixed wireless access and or mobile services) Within this, GSA has identified:
- 406# operators that have launched LTE fixed wireless access services (excludes those offering MiFi/dongle services only).
- 728# operators that offer fully mobile LTE services.
- 233 # operators hold licences to use spectrum for TD-LTE services, 165 of which are known to be actively using the spectrum (either deploying networks or have launched services).
- 353 operators are deploying or have launched LTE-Advanced or LTE-Advanced Pro technologies in their commercial networks. 207 operators are investing in one or more LTE-Advanced Pro technologies.
- The most popular 4G LTE band is 1800Mhz (band 3), being deployed or used in 382 commercial LTE networks globally (47.9% of the total). Band 3 also has the largest LTE user devices ecosystem at 12,353
5G:
- 402 operators in 129 countries are investing in 5G networks in the form of tests, trials, pilots, planned and actual deployments.
- 136 operators have announced that they have deployed 3GPP-compliant 5G technology in their networks. Of those, GSA now counts 112 operators in 47 countries/territories that have launched one or more 3GPP-compliant commercial retail 5G services.
- 52 operators investing in 5G standalone (including those evaluating/testing, piloting, planning, deploying as well as those that have launched 5G SA networks)
- The number of announced 5G devices surpassed 400 devices for the 1st time, including 200 phones of which 148 are now commercially available.
- The network bands known to be most supported by all announced 5G devices are n78, n41, n79, n1, n77 and n3.
Others network features:
- 4×4 MIMO – 150 operators identified as investing, of which 93 have deployed/ launched the technology within their commercial networks.
- 8T8R MIMO and Massive MIMO – 84 operators identified as investing in these technologies; at least 38 deployed/launched.
- 273 operators investing in VoLTE, and 224 operators with launched VoLTE services.
- 110 deployed/launched NB-IoT networks.
- 49 deployed/launched networks LTE-M networks.
- 256 QAM in the DL – 124 operators identified as investing, of which 79 are known to have deployed/launched the technology within their commercial networks.
VoLTE:
- 274 operators identified as investing in VoLTE by September 2020 and 215 launched networks.
- GSA has recorded 2,941 VoLTE-capable devices (up from 2,730 in June 2020) including carrier and frequency variants. Of these devices, 2,449 are phones, which means 22.9% of LTE phones announced are known to support VoLTE.
- By end September 2020, GSA had identified 81 commercially launched 5G devices supporting VoLTE (and another 42 pre-commercial 5G devices announced with VoLTE support).
- The number of ViLTE (Video over LTE)-capable devices listed in the GSA database is 426 (up from 398 at the end of December 2019).
