The Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) today announced that over 173 countries around the globe have operators that hold spectrum license for low-band LTE or 5G. To be precise, a total of 515 operators in the concerned 173 countries have licenses for low-band spectrum that can enable them for providing 5G or LTE services. Adding to this, over 400 operators have already launched 5G or LTE networks with the help of low-band spectrum.
More than 15,000 Devices Can Support LTE Networks
According to the latest Low-Band Spectrum for LTE and 5G report shared by the GSA, there are more than 15,000 devices across the globe that can support LTE networks on low-bands. Also, out of the total 316 5G smartphones that are capable of supporting low-band spectrum for NR, 219 devices are already commercially available. The report further says that 37 countries have already formally announced tariff plans for the 5G-suitable low-band spectrum frequencies. Looking at this, GSA believes that the number of auctions for low-band spectrum for 5G services will increase further in the coming years. On top of this, GSA said that the operators would look for 5G NR deployments with the help of the already assigned spectrum.
Why is Low-Band Spectrum Important for 5G?
There are different kind of frequency bands when it comes to spectrum. One of them is the low-band spectrum. Low-band spectrum is important to provide good coverage in rural parts of the country and even extended coverage in the urban cities enhancing the indoor network experience for the users. The only drawback of the low-band spectrum is that they won’t provide the highest speed to the users. For high-speeds, operators will make use of mmWave bands and mid-bands. More and more operators around the world will be looking to roll out 5G services leveraging the low-band spectrum. As in the case of Indian operators, the airwaves in the 700 MHz (sub-GHz) band is considered crucial for the 5G roll out. The government has also given the telcos the coveted 700 MHz band spectrum for conducting their 5G trials both in the urban and rural parts of the country.
