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 CHAPTER 2: CURRENT STATE OF THE 5G COMPETITIVE FIELD

5G capability by country can be compared across five metrics: spectrum availability, widespread 5G trials, 5G roadmaps being established by the national regulator, government commitment (e.g., strategy documents and policies paving the way for 5G implementation), and industry commitment to early 5G launch. Of these metrics, spectrum availability has the largest influence, as many of the other factors are dependent on that availability. For spectrum availability, there is ongoing debate on the merits of sub-6 versus mmWave and how to allocate spectrum in either of those categories, and in the United States there is a larger concern about allocating or sharing government-owned spectrum to the commercial sector. For infrastructure, carriers can take a “non-standalone” approach, which leverages existing 3G and 4G infrastructure as a stepping stone to get to full 5G capability, or a “standalone” approach, which requires a large up-front investment to build out new infrastructure for a 5G network. Source: https://www.everythingrf.com/community/5g-frequency-bands

China

China has taken the lead in 5G development through a series of aggressive investment and spectrum-allocation initiatives. In addition to investing $180B in capital expenditure for 5G deployment over five years, China assigned 200 MHz of mid-band spectrum to its three state providers and is considering reallocating 500 MHz of C-band spectrum as well. Domestically, China’s 5G deployment is being implemented through its major telecommunications companies DIB 5G Study