A hundred times faster than 4G, 5G offers people and businesses a never-before-seen level of connectivity. As of February 2021, over 30 per cent of the world’s countries have access to 5G. And according to some forecasts, by 2025, the world will see 3.6 billion 5G connections. American 5G networks have been coming up sporadically for a few years now due to the fundamental challenges of such networks. Up to 32 per cent of North American mobile connections will be on 5G networks by 2023, according to estimates. A few companies, including Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, offer mobile 5G connectivity. Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile are currently offering 5G fixed wireless broadband services. Samsung Electronics America, Inc., Qualcomm Technologies and Verizon announced a successful 5G New Radio (NR) data connection in December 2018, using 400 MHz of bandwidth in the 28 GHz spectrum, with a maximum throughput of over 1.7 Gbps. In the demonstration, multi-gigabit 5G speeds were delivered to a smartphone test device, with a particular focus on how users can experience virtually seamless, uninterrupted data transmission using the 3GPP 5G NR specification and dual connectivity (known as EN-DC).
In South Korea, SK Telecom, LG Uplus and KT collaborated to bring mobile 5G to the country in December 2018. They started for select businesses only, but later opened up for others via Samsung Galaxy S10 5G. SK Telecom offers service via its four 5G plans. These plans arrived after 5G trials in 2017 using the new network in their self-driving test site K-City. KT Corporation began its service with a pre-commercial offering at the Lotte World Tower in Seoul and six other areas. In early 2019, it launched unlimited 5G services and expanded coverage to a total of 85 cities by the end of that year. KT previously collaborated with Intel to showcase 5G service at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeong Chang and plans to invest over $20 billion through 2023 in 5G and other innovative technologies. According to the ICT and Broadcasting Technology Policy, 90 per cent of the country’s mobile users will be on a 5G network by 2026.
NTT DOCOMO, Japan’s largest wireless carrier, has been studying and experimenting with 5G since 2010 and launched pre-commercial services in September 2019, before officially launching in March 2020. Similarly, SoftBank began its 5G services in March 2020.
Qatar’s Ooredoo, a telecom company, has been implementing 5G since 2016. It was the first company in the world to provide commercial access to 5G. Since 2018, the company has been offering a 5G home broadband service, in partnership with Ericsson. In late 2018, Vodafone introduced 5G in the Katara Cultural Village and the Souq Waqif. The service is unlimited and available on compatible phones. Currently, there are nine vendors who sell 5G handsets – Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung and ZTE.
Similarly, in Kuwait, Zain announced its 5G launch in June 2018, accessible on devices such as Huawei routers, a Netgear hotspot, some Samsung phones and others. Kuwait’s STC (formerly VIVA) is another company that has launched 5G services. In order to use these services, customers must purchase a specific plan.
In Taiwan, several telecom companies have launched 5G. The largest, Chunghwa Telecom was the first to launch 5G. Taiwan Star followed in August 2020 and Asia Pacific Telecom in October 2020. The company has deployed 2,000 5G base stations.
In Singapore, StarHub announced in 2018 that it had, in partnership with Nokia, completed its first 5G outdoor trial on the 3.5 GHz frequency band. It made the country’s first 5G SA call in 2021. Singapore Telecom too has launched its 5G network. TPG Mobile has been offering 5G services since late 2021. In Singapore, its True 5G network covers 50 per cent of the population and 99 per cent will be covered by 2022. With the launch of their respective 5G stand-alone networks in Singapore, StarHub and Singapore Telecom (Singtel) are gearing up to offer consumer services. To try out Singtel’s network, some customers will be given Samsung’s Galaxy S21 5G Ultra as a test unit.
The Philippines’ Smart has been testing 5G since 2016. Five years after the announcement of the launch of 5G TehnoLab in 2018, the network became commercially available in business districts of Metro Manila in July 2020, followed by all Metro Manila cities in early 2021. Furthermore, Globe Telecom offers a 5G fixed wireless broadband service called Globe At Home Air Fiber 5G. It offers speeds of up to 100 Mbps and data packages of up to 2 TB. It also offers mobile services in several areas. Another company planning to deploy 5G in the Philippines is NOW Telecom. Dito Telecommunity is expected to offer 5G fixed wireless access by the end of 2021.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission had originally anticipated 5G deployment by the third quarter of 2020, but the latest report says that it expects it to happen in 2022. The Agro Exposition Park and other locations in Malaysia were equipped with 5G base stations in early 2020. Maxis, Huawei, U Mobile and ZTE signed MoUs in early 2019 to collaborate on 5G deployment in Malaysia. Celcom is also preparing to offer 5G services in Malaysia.
Handset ecosystem
The rise of 5G technology in smartphones has also changed the handset vendor marketplace. Global 5G smartphone sales reached a record 136 million units in the first quarter of 2021, according to Strategy Analytics. Overall, Samsung remained the world’s largest smartphone vendor across all geographies, with an 18.2 per cent market share in the said quarter. During the first quarter of 2021, Samsung shipped most of the 5G handsets worldwide, with a whopping 79 per cent increase between the fourth quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021, far more than the overall growth of the 5G category at 6 per cent. In the meantime, iPhone vendor, Apple increased its share of the overall global smartphone market to 15.1 per cent. Additionally, Apple remains by far the largest vendor of 5G smartphones, despite the drop in shipments. In the first quarter of 2021, it shipped 40.4 million 5G iPhones, while the runner-up, OPPO, shipped 21.5 million. Nokia shipped 19.4 million, Samsung shipped 17 million and Xiaomi shipped 16.6 million.
Realme, meanwhile, has set a goal of selling 100 million 5G phones to young customers throughout the world by 2024, while putting its Gen Z client base at the forefront of the research and development process. It intends to expand its 5G handset options to over 20. Meanwhile, Huawei, once the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer, has fallen dramatically as a result of continuing US sanctions.
Going forward
Globally, shipments of 5G smartphones surpassed 3 million units in 2020, out of a total of 150 million units shipped worldwide, according to IDC’s Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. Canalys estimates that 5G handsets made up 37 per cent of the global smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2021. IDC expects the smartphone market to continue expanding in 2021, driven largely by upgraders in the mid-range segment and affordable 5G offerings. Also, IDC anticipates renewed growth in the indispensable brick- and -mortar counters for sustainability.
While a BayStreet Research report notes that 5G’s rise among smartphone manufacturers could be slowed down by the ongoing shortage in component parts, it expects 5G to reach 95 per cent of all phones in the near term.
