The 5G gap between countries is widening. 5G deployments are on the rise in many countries whereas others are left behind or struggling to get the right spectrum.
South Korea, Singapore, China, UAE, KSA, Kuwait and many other countries already launched 5G and their customers are enjoying this new amazing connectivity experience, especially that 5G devices are now available and offered by many brands.
On the other hand, countries like Canada are still struggling to choose to which operator the spectrum should be granted or even to hold an auction! The auction scenario happened in other countries during 4G spectrum allocation such as in Egypt and Tunisia to generate income.
European regulators in Germany and Ireland already informed the incumbent operators or anyone who is using 5G allocated frequencies that their licenses will not be renewed in order to support the 5G deployment the soonest.
In North America, the United States are leading the way in 5G R&D. At the lower end of the frequency spectrum, they are using the 600 MHz (2 x 35 MHz) band, the 3100 - 3550 MHz band and the 3700 - 4200 MHz band. At the higher end of the frequency spectrum, they are using the 27.5 – 28.35 GHz band and the 37 – 40 GHz band.
Canada is left behind as the CRTC, planning the 5G auction in 2020, leaves the country to be the last to deploy this amazing technology while 2 of the Canadian operators are ready for 5G in terms of testing and investments.