Viavi Solutions asserted 5G rollouts in global cities largely shrugged off Covid-19 (coronavirus) headwinds in the year to end-January, with the total approaching the 2,000 mark.

In an annual report into the 5G market, Viavi Solutions stated a further 635 cities gained access to the technology during the period, bringing the total to 1,947. The company stated the growth equated to around two cities per day.

The EMEA region ended January with 839 cities equipped with 5G, surpassing APAC including greater China, which Viavi Solutions placed on 689, with the Americas on 419.

By country, China led the way on 356, followed by the US on 296 and the Philippines with 98.

Viavi Solutions also provided an update on the status of operator open RAN deployments, with 64 having announced participation in the development of the architecture by March.

Of the total, 24 mobile operators had deployed open RAN in their 5G networks, with another seven having announced they were in the pre-trial phase.

Viavi Solutions CTO Sameh Yamany stated open RAN would “continue its rapid development and start to become a de facto standard”.

The company compiled its data from publicly available sources.