Global deployments of commercial 5G networks grew threefold in the past year. The highest number of launches is taking place in Asia and EMEA, Viavi Solutions stated.
The network testing and monitoring company stated in a report that 5G networks covered 1,336 cities by 31 January 2021, a 350 percent increase compared with the same date in 2020. Of those, 528 were in Asia; 459 in EMEA; and 349 in the Americas.
On a country level, Viavi Solutions stated China had live networks in 341 cities; the US 279; and South Korea 85. It added 30 percent of nations worldwide had 5G, with deployments in 61 countries up 80 per cent.
Viavi Solutions CTO Sameh Yamany said deployments were being driven by overwhelming subscriber appetite for faster data rates and broader bandwidth. He warned, however, operators’ success depended on the ability to deliver the best possible network performance and service quality.
Nokia and SURF, the organization for IT in Dutch education and research, have successfully reached a single carrier 800Gb/s optical transmission over SURF’s existing cross-border, multi-vendor research and education network infrastructure.
Nokia and Vodafone are collaborating to test the viability of L4S technology over passive optical networks (PON).
The GSMA believes that critical reform of European laws is necessary to position the region as a technology frontrunner by 2030.
