The mobile industry is moving forward swiftly with 5G. In early April, South Korea’s three mobile operators launched services for consumers across most of the country, while in the US Verizon introduced 5G in three areas, with plans to cover 30 cities by year-end. Europe is not far behind, with Italy and Germany already holding 5G spectrum auctions.

Mobile World Live, in cooperation with Huawei, conducted an online survey of telecoms executives to assess their readiness to deploy 5G networks, the drivers behind the launches and the expected key benefits.

The survey found nearly half of operators plan to launch 5G service in 2019 and another 27 per cent planning rollouts in 2020.

Other key findings include:

• Respondents agree cost reduction (46 per cent) and coverage (22 per cent) will be key 5G drivers, but ranked capacity third (15 per cent)
• Regarding services, 5G operators are putting a key focus on cellular IoT, FWA, eMBB and connected cars
• To adapt to the changes 5G networks will bring and the new business models created, 40 per cent of respondents said network sharing will be required

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