By the end of January 2022, 72 countries had 5G networks, with the latest batch of 5G countries—Argentina, Bhutan, Kenya, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Malta, and Mauritius—going live in the second half of 2021. Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) has overtaken Asia Pacific, including Greater China (APAC), to become the region with the most 5G cities, at 839. APAC has 689 5G cities, and the Americas have 419.
Not surprisingly, the world’s two largest economies, the United States and China, have the most 5G cities. China now has 356 5G cities, and the United States has 296. The Philippines remains in third place globally with a total of 98 5G cities.
Currently, most deployed 5G networks are non-standalone (NSA) networks, meaning that 5G equipment is added to existing 4G network infrastructure. There are currently 24 standalone (SA) 5G networks worldwide, meaning they have been built using a new 5G core network. It is generally considered that many of the next-generation use cases and monetization models associated with 5G, beyond enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), will only be possible with standalone 5G networks built on top of new 5G core networks.
The State of 5G report also highlights the growing Open RAN ecosystem, which brings together mobile operators and software and infrastructure providers, and aims to develop an open, virtualized radio access network (RAN) with integrated artificial intelligence (AI) control. As of March 2022, 64 operators have publicly announced their involvement in Open RAN development. This breaks down into 23 live Open RAN deployments, 34 in trial phase, and seven additional operators that have publicly announced they are in the pre-trial phase.
“5G continued to expand, despite the headwinds of a global pandemic,” says Sameh Yamany, CTO of VIAVI Solutions. “What’s coming next in 5G is network hardening. This will take a couple of forms. First, we expect to see more standalone 5G networks, which will deliver much of the promise of 5G, both for the operator and the wider user ecosystem. And second, we expect open RAN to continue its rapid development and begin to become a de facto standard. VIAVI will continue to play a critical role in testing these new networks as they are built and scaled.”
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Equinix selects Infinera Cloud Xpress for data center interconnection in Hong Kong
Infinera announces that Equinix has selected Infinera Cloud Xpress to interconnect its data centers in Hong Kong. Infinera Cloud Xpress offers Equinix a platform with hyperscale density, operational simplicity, and low power consumption.
