2 Cities a Day Globally Coming Online With 5G, Reports Viavi

The world is adding 5G cities at a pace of almost two per day, with the current number at 1,947 globally, reported Viavi Solutions Tuesday. At the end of January, 72 nations had 5G networks in place, with the newest crop of Argentina, Bhutan, Kenya, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Malta and Mauritius, the report says. The U.S., at 296, and China, at 356, had the most 5G cities. “There are currently 24 Standalone (SA) 5G networks globally, meaning that they have been built using a new 5G core network,” Viavi said: “It is widely considered that many of the next-generation use cases and monetization models associated with 5G, beyond enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) will only be possible when Standalone 5G networks built on new 5G core networks are in place.” Some 64 operators have publicly announced open radio access networks. “This breaks down to 23 live deployments, …34 in the trial phase with a further seven operators that have publicly announced they are in the pre-trial phase.”