Global 5G market grows to 200 operators offering services
The world reached 200 operators offering 5G services at the end of 2021, in 78 countries, the GSA reports. Nearly twice the number, 487 operators in 145 countries, were investing in 5G, including trials and licence acquisitions, up from 412 operators at the end of 2020. Global 5G market
- Of those, a total of 200 operators in 78 countries/territories had launched one or more 3GPP-compliant 5G services.
- 187 operators in 72 countries/territories had launched 5G mobile services.
- 83 operators in 45 countries/territories had launched 3GPP-compliant 5G FWA services (41.5% of those with launched 5G services).
- Five operators had announced soft launches of their 5G networks that are not counted in the above launch figures.
- 99 operators in 50 countries had been identified as investing in 5G standalone (including those evaluating/testing, piloting, planning, deploying as well as those that had launched 5G SA networks). GSA had catalogued 20 operators in 16 countries/territories as having deployed/launched 5G standalone in public networks.
- GSA has catalogued 1257 announced 5G devices, up by nearly 125% from 559 in a year.
- GSA has identified 614 announced 5G phones, up more than 120% from 278 at the end of 2020.
- There are at least 857 commercially available 5G devices, up more than 155% from 335 in a year.
mmWave Summary December 2021: Global 5G market
- One hundred and ninety-two operators in 48 countries/territories are investing in mmWave (in the form of tests/trials, acquisition of licences, planning deployments or engaging in deployments).One hundred and forty operators in 24 countries/territories have been assigned mmWave spectrum (often on a regional basis) enabling operation of 5G networks.Twenty-eight operators in 16 countries/territories are known to be already deploying 5G networks using mmWave spectrum.
Fourteen countries/territories have announced formal (date-specified) plans for assigning frequencies above 24 GHz between now and end-2023.
One hundred and forty-two announced 5G devices explicitly support one or more of the 5G spectrum bands above 24 GHz (though note that details of spectrum support are patchy for pre-commercial devices). Ninety-two of those devices are understood to be commercially available.
