The provision of 5G services continues to expand worldwide with the USA amongst the leaders in terms of availability. In 2022 13% of mobile connections in the USA were over a 5G system and this is expected to increase to beyond 30% by the end of this year, matching the percentage of 5G connections in South Korea.

On average 62% of the population in the European Union have access to 5G services though there are wide variations between EU countries: the Netherlands has 80% coverage while Switzerland leads the field with 99% of the population having the opportunity to connect by 5G. In the UK 70% of the population are covered.

The expansion of 5G will necessarily lead to the retirement of earlier generations with 3G the first to be withdrawn. 2G services will continue for a while longer due to the reliance of certain industries and IoT devices on 2G services: smart meters and automobile eCall (emergency call) devices rely on GSM circuit switching. LTE will of course provide high broadband speeds for many years.

Despite the growth of 5G availability, less sparsely populated areas will be the last to gain access to 5G. BT has announced trials of an airborne solution. The ultimate goal is to use High-Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) aircraft which fly above the flight paths of commercial aircraft to provide 5G coverage with broadband speeds of up to 150 Mbit/s.
HAPS aircraft will use phased array antennae to produce 500 individually steerable beams providing a range of 140 kilometres matching the footprint of 450 terrestrial masts.
Initially, the BT trial will use antennae on a high building followed by tests using hydrogen fuelled drones.

For a more down to earth treatment of 5G, PTT’s two new online courses cover 5G systems and services.