Africa Plays Catch Up in 5G Deployments

African countries accounted for 40 percent of the commercial 5G network rollouts in the first half of this year. Those countries adding 5G include Nigeria, Tanzania, Mozambique and Gambia. 

“We expect African operators to feature more in future commercial 5G launches as the region catches up with more established 5G markets in other parts of the globe,” S&P Global Intelligence said. “5G pioneers in Africa, South Africa and Lesotho, have demonstrated that strong government support, especially in releasing spectrum and having a consistent regulatory environment, is key to supporting 5G.”

Ten new 5G commercial networks were launched worldwide in the first half of 2023, according to S&P Global Intelligence, bringing the total of active commercial 5G services to 249, spread across 97 markets. Along with Africa, Asia-Pacific and Europe saw launches, including Macau, Germany, Romania, Armenia and Iceland.

Globally, spectrum use in 5G networks has harmonized, according to the firm, with 40 percent of this year’s launches using 3.5 GHz and the rest opting for low-band spectrum for coverage or dynamic spectrum sharing over legacy 4G spectrum in bands such as 2.1 GHz.

At least 35 operators worldwide are using millimeter wave (mmW) spectrum for their commercial 5G networks. The spectrum, however, seems to be most popular in the U.S. and Europe, while Korea has canceled mmWave auctions and China hasn’t allocated the spectrum wireless yet. 

In another area of wireless network growth, 115 operators in 52 countries and territories have invested in public 5G standalone networks, according to Global Mobile Supplies Association.

“This equates to 21.4 percent of the 535 operators known to be investing in 5G licenses, trials or deployments of any type,” the GMSA said. “Of these, our data confirms that at least 36 operators in 25 countries and territories are now understood to have launched or deployed public 5G Standalone networks, two of which have only soft-launched their 5G SA networks.”

By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor