Global deployments of commercial 5G networks grew threefold in the year to end January, with the highest number of launches taking place in Asia and EMEA, Viavi Solutions stated.

In a report, the network testing and monitoring company stated 5G networks covered 1,336 cities by 31 January 2021, a 350 per cent increase compared with the same date in 2020. Of those, 528 were in Asia; 459 in EMEA; and 349 in the Americas.

On a country level, Viavi Solutions stated China had live networks in 341 cities; the US 279; and South Korea 85.

It added 30 per cent of nations worldwide had 5G, with deployments in 61 countries up 80 per cent.

Viavi Solutions CTO Sameh Yamany said deployments were being driven by “overwhelming subscriber appetite” for faster data rates and broader bandwidth.

He warned, however, operators’ success depended on the ability to deliver “the best possible” network performance and service quality.

Viavi Solutions noted the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic did not have a significant effect on global 5G rollouts, concurring with a recent report by GSMA Intelligence, which found the pace of deployment was steady from March 2020 onwards.