mmWave Summary December 2021 – Spectrum Update
This report provides a snapshot of the global usage of high-band spectrum above 24.25 GHz for 5G services (mmWave spectrum). It is part of a series of reports which separately also cover spectrum bands below 1.6 GHz (low-band spectrum) and between 1.6 GHz and 7.125 GHz (mid-band spectrum).
This report reflects a market that is in constant flux and feedback is greatly appreciated to keep it current. Please send comments and information to research@gsacom.com.
Key statistics:
One hundred and ninety-two operators in 48 countries/territories are investing in mmWave (in the form of tests/trials, acquisition of licences, planning deployments or engaging in deployments).
One hundred and forty operators in 24 countries/territories have been assigned mmWave spectrum (often on a regional basis) enabling operation of 5G networks.
Twenty-eight operators in 16 countries/territories are known to be already deploying 5G networks using mmWave spectrum.
Fourteen countries/territories have announced formal (date-specified) plans for assigning frequencies above 24 GHz between now and end-2023.
One hundred and forty-two announced 5G devices explicitly support one or more of the 5G spectrum bands above 24 GHz (though note that details of spectrum support are patchy for pre-commercial devices). Ninety-two of those devices are understood to be commercially available.
(Note: all references to countries/territories in this document can be read as §also including territories, special administrative regions, disputed territories and dependencies.)
Frequency range designations and bands
In this report, we consider spectrum in specific mmWave bands for which auctions or long-term designations are being considered. These include new 5G/NR bands defined by 3GPP in Release 15, which are being defined in the frequency ranges (FR) shown in
Table 1.
At WRC-2019 in November, several new frequency ranges were identified for IMT, to be used by IMT-2020 (5G). These encompassed many of the 3GPP-bands listed in the above table plus some additional spectrum ranges:
24.25–27.5 GHz
37–43.5 GHz
45.5–47 GHz
47.2–48.2 GHz
66–71 GHz.
These additional ranges are also covered by this report.
mmWave Report December 2021 – Spectrum Update
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mmWave Summary December 2021 – Spectrum Update
