While 5G hype increases by the day, a global survey of wireless providers indicates that it will take years to become as ubiquitously available as 4G. As of mid-2019, wireless operators in all regions surveyed asserted 5G deployments, with carriers in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific leading the way in terms of both the number of 5G deployments and percentage of their customers covered by the next-generation service.

Of the 56 global operators surveyed in Kagan's B2B 5G survey completed in August, only 10 (17.9%), are staking a claim to 100% 5G coverage by the end of 2022. Although operators in all global regions claimed to have 5G deployed in their networks, many of these early implementations are de facto field trials. When asked what percentage of their customer bases are covered by 5G at present (end of second quarter 2019), three of six North American operators indicated that between 0% and 20% of their customers had access to 5G, one fell into the 21% to 40% range, and one asserted that 5G is available to 60% of its base.

Survey Description

Kagan’s global B2B survey of wireless providers on their 5G deployment and service development strategies populated more than 2,000 data points and yielded insights on deployment roadmaps, technology approaches, pricing strategies, killer apps, and plans for rural deployments. The data is available in our "survey banner" file that presents the results of 24 key questions asked of executives and decision makers at 56 discreet wireless carriers in all major geographic regions.