After years of pilot testing around the entire planet, the first year since the first mobile phone operators started offering 5G services to its customers, which are now officially available in 19 countries.
To know how is the implementation of 5G in different countriesWe are going to review the calendar followed by the different countries, the number of cities where there is already 5G coverage, the frequencies that are being used in the first deployment to broadcast their coverage or the phases that are being implemented.
South Korea with 5G since April 2019
South Korea was one of the first countries in the world to implement 5G. The main operators in the country, KT and SK Telecom, did so, announcing the 5G NSA startup in April with initial coverage starting at some 34,000 base stations that provided coverage to cities such as Seoul and six cities of its metropolitan area, in addition to 85 other cities from the country.
For the launch offer, the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G was promoted and new rates with unlimited traffic were announced, opting for reduce the speed in the cheapest ones to 1 or 5 Mbps after consuming part of the traffic at maximum speed.
Switzerland with 5G since April 2019
Also in April 2019, European countries such as Switzerland welcomed 5G with an ambitious plan to extend its coverage that would allow the main objective of providing connection to those homes and offices that did not have fiber optics. This plan had already led the 5G to 428 cities In January 2020, 90% of the Swiss population.
Those in charge of the deployment were operators such as Swisscom and Sunrise, and their rates also opt for the modality with unlimited data traffic, but with a speed restricted to 100 Mbps for 80 francs, or 2 Gbps for 200 francs.
United Arab Emirates on 5G since May 2019
Etisalat has been one of the first operators to deploy 5G in the UAE, for the moment concentrating its coverage on cities such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sarja and other nearby towns.
Finland with 5G since May 2019
5G came to Finland in May 2019 by Elisa, operator that initially deployed its coverage in the areas of the city centers of Tampere, Jyväskylä, Turku and Helsinki. Nine months later, the coverage reached 20 cities.
UK with 5G since June 2019
In the UK, EE was the first operator to deliver 5G in June 2019 and today already has coverage in 71 towns. Your bet on unlimited data is reduced to a single fee of £ 64, which will have no speed limit. The rest of the rates allow you to choose between 10, 30 or 120 GB.
Spain with 5G since June 2019
In Spain, at the moment only Vodafone has deployed 5G in 15 cities and since its launch there have been no notable advances in its arrival in new cities, except for a few exceptions such as Benidorm, which was supposed to serve as an advance for another batch of 5G cities. At the moment, the deployment of Vodafone has focused on 5G NSA, but it has already started to deploy 5G SA in professional environments.
The frequency used for the initial deployment has been in the 3.7 GHz, while the 800 MHz band will have to wait while the migration of DTT to 700 MHz is paralyzed and the bidding of the frequencies for 5G cannot be reactivated. in the low band.
In Spain, 5G rates have included prepaid and contract card rates, including the cheapest ones such as Vodafone yu, and unlimited data rates, which are offered in three modes depending on their speed, to be chosen in 2, 10 Mbps or maximum available.
Italy with 5G since June 2019
Vodafone was also in charge of bringing 5G to Italy a few days after doing so in Spain, but the progress of the deployment has been more accelerated and already reaching a total of 33 cities after giving the starting gun only in Rome, Milan, Torino, Bologna and Naples. The goal for this year is reach 100 cities.
The rate model chosen by Vodafone Italia has been practically traced to that of Spain, although the prices for the 2 Mbps modality are 4 euros cheaper there, the 10 Mbps price is 6 euros cheaper, and the unlimited speed 10 euros more expensive. Your data roaming will also be much more limited, between 1 and 5 GB.
Germany with 5G since June 2019
In Germany Vodafone repeated itself as the first operator to start its 5G and today it is already available in about 50 cities. Despite the rapid evolution of the deployment, there the rates are still limited to a maximum of 20 GB for 50 euros.
Japan with 5G since September 2019
The Japanese operator NTT Docomo He was in charge of turning on 5G on September 20, 2019 in the city of Sapporo, although it has been necessary to wait for spring 2020 to see its availability increase. The most generous rates include 100 GB for about 65 euros.
Ireland with 5G since October 2019
and go, Irish operator announced the arrival of 5G to 10 cities on October 24, 2019, with an initial deployment of 100 base stations in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford and an offer with unlimited data for 60 euros and 5G mobiles from 99 euros. Over the months, 5G coverage has doubled and is already reaching 25% of the population.
China with 5G since November 2019
The arrival of 5G NSA in China was announced by two of its main operators in November, China Mobile and China Unicom, with initial coverage of 50,000 5G base stations that reached 50 cities among which was Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Tianjin, Wuhan, Jinan or Zhengzhou. During the spring of 2020, Nanjing has become the first city with 5G SA.
Among the tariffs, China Unicom released seven new modalities with prices between 129 yuan and 599 yuan, with bonuses included between 30 GB and 300 GB.
Romania with 5G since November 2019
Orange was in charge of bringing the first 5G network to Romania last November 2019 to three cities like Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Iasi, and for the moment the number of cities with 5G has not increased.
Sweden with 5G since December 2019
Telenor launched its first 5G network in Sweden on December 14, 2019, but is currently only available in Stockholm.
United States with 5G since December 2019
Although Verizón anticipated the arrival of 5G in the US, it was T-Mobile who presented on December 6, 2019 the most extensive national 5G network, which covered more than 200 million people spread over more than 5,000 cities, and it did so using the spectrum in the 600 MHz band, although they are already preparing to use the 2.5 GHz band.
Canada with 5G since January 2020
Canadian operator Rogers was the first to announce its national 5G network on January 15, 2020 in cities such as Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, and it hopes to achieve 20 more cities throughout the year.
The Rogers 5G network initially uses a 2.5 GHz spectrum in the mentioned cities and will expand to use the 5G spectrum of 600 MHz later this year. In the future, Rogers will also begin implementing 3.5 GHz spectrum and dynamic spectrum sharing, which will allow 4G spectrum to be used for 5G thanks to Ericsson’s equipment.
Austria with 5G since January 2020
On January 25, 2020, the first 5G network of operator A1 was presented in Austria, which with its 350 5G base stations, offers coverage initially to 129 municipalities through the spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band. Its fee with unlimited data has a cost of 100 euros.
Thailand with 5G since March 2020
Thai operators True Move H and AIS announced the arrival of 5G in March 2020 at 77 provinces using spectrum at 700MHz, 2.6 GHz and at 26 GHz.
Belgium with 5G since April 2020
One of the last countries to join 5G has been Belgium, which has coverage with Proximus in about 50 cities and unlimited data rate for 50 euros.
Source: explica.com
