As of January 2020, commercial 5G networks have been deployed in 378 cities across 34 countries, according to VIAVI Solutions.

Using publicly available data sources, the network testing company revealed that the country with the most cities with 5G availability was South Korea with 85 cities, followed by China with 57, the United States at 50, and the United Kingdom with 31 cities.

In terms of regional coverage, EMEA leads the way with 168 cities where 5G networks have been deployed, Asia was second with 156 cities, followed by the Americas with 54 cities covered by 5G. Deployments include both mobile and fixed wireless 5G networks.

As the battle for 5G supremacy heats up, VIAVI’s research indicated that a number of operators are blanketing the largest population centres, with as many as five communications service providers deploying 5G in cities such as Los Angeles and New York.

“For 5G operators there is a heady mixture of optimism and fear,” said Sameh Yamany, chief technology officer at VIAVI. “The optimism is related to a plethora of new commercial applications that could change operator economics for the better, even though they may not feel the commercial impact for some time.

“The immediate fear is that they will get left behind in the short-term marketing battle by rival operators if they’re not fast enough in their land grab,” he added.

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