In telecommunications, 5G stands for the fifth generation. It is the technology standard for broadband cellular networks and the planned successor to the 4G networks. Cellular phone companies began to deploy 5G worldwide in 2019 and the network is predicted to have more than 1.7 billion subscribers worldwide by 2025, according to the GSM Association.
5G promises faster browsing, streaming, and download speeds, as well as better connectivity, and the network will ultimately change how you live and work, it will help businesses increase efficiency and drive innovation in ways we can only imagine.
Here are the Top 5 service providers of the 5G network in 2020
- Ericsson
Ericsson, a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company, brought in annual revenues of USD 25.62 billion last year which makes it one of the biggest telecommunications companies. As of 2020, the Swedish tech giant has a 27% market share in the 2G/3G/4G mobile network infrastructure market. It is well known as a driver for its 5G hardware development to evolve towards all-IP and develop LTE systems.
The Bluetooth inventor currently provides 54 Live 5G networks in over 27 5G countries and its most notable content providers are AT&T, China Mobile, GCI, Rogers, and more in USA, Canada and China. Ericsson has 99 commercial 5G agreements or contracts with unique operators, as of 2020.
- Verizon
Verizon is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate founded in 1983, the compnay began rolling out its 5G mobile network in April last year and by the year’s end, it was active in 30 cities in the U.S. By the end of this year, Verizon plans to deploy its 5G network in 30 new cities. Verizon’s 5G network is deployed on millimeter wave (extremely high frequency) spectrum (mmWave).
Even though it is pretty fast, the high-band spectrum Verizon uses has limited range. It also has plans to increase its number of 5G cell sites by 500% in 2020. Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband is the flagship 5G service of Verizon. Due to its lofty vision and expected expansion of 5G services, it is also one of the best 5g stocks to invest in.
- Nokia
Founded in 1865, Nokia, a Finnish multinational telecommunications company, is one of the early adopter of 5G technology. It’s the only network supplier whose 5G technology has been contracted by all four nationwide operators in the United States (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile US and Verizon), all three operators in South Korea (Korea Telecom, LG Uplus and SK Telecom) and Japan (NTT DOCOMO, KDDI, and SoftBank). Currently, Nokia has over 152 5G agreements and 18 live networks. Nokia is serious about rolling out 5G technology all over the globe and currently has 29 live 5G networks.
- AT&T
AT&T, an American multinational conglomerate holding company, was the first to make mobile 5G a reality in the U.S. in late 2018. It was also the first carrier in the U.S. to reach mobile 5G speeds surpassing 1 gigabit per second and 2 gigabit per second in 2019.
The company uses sub-6GHz spectrum and claims it provides the network nationwide to 225 million people. AT&T also offers what it brands 5G+ which is lingo for mmWave and the service is available in parts of 35 markets around the country.
- T-Mobile
T-Mobile US (TMUS), an American wireless network operator, was one of the first service providers to roll out a “real 5G nationwide network”, according to experts, after its Sprint buyout. The company that has long maintained that high-band 5G isn’t feasible at a nationwide scale, has built a significant portion of its 5G network using its 600MHz spectrum.
By 2024, the new T-Mobile network plans to double the total capacity and triple the total 5G capacity of T-Mobile and Sprint combined. With a market of USD 129.98 billion, the Sprint buyout has helped T-Mobile move forward.
