Recent 5G coverage has reported launch activity in Thailand, Tajikistan and Croatia, though what constitutes a launch may be up for debate; a couple of 5G debuts are concentrated in a relatively small area.
Thai mobile operator AIS certainly does seem to have launched a 5G service. It is using frequencies in the 2600MHz band despite having received its 2600MHz spectrum licence only a week ago.
While 4G subscribers using smartphones compatible with the band are apparently able to benefit from the 5G service, and ‘thousands’ of AIS cell sites are said to be compatible with the frequency band, full 5G adoption – in the form of comprehensive ecosystem development – could be a year or two away, it seems.
Meanwhile a single zone in the central area of the Tajikistan capital Dushanbe now has live 5G, courtesy of MegaFon Tajikistan. Again the service’s availability depends on whether customers have compatible devices allowing them to access 5G mobile broadband data speeds.
Even more area-specific is Hrvatski Telekom’s (HT) just-launched closed 5G network in Zagreb, Croatia, in conjunction with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing at the city’s university.
The operator is quoted in the press as saying that says the network will “offer students, the scientific community, start-ups, and industry the opportunity to work on the latest communication technologies such as Industry 4.0, 5G networks and IoT”.
Similar campus networks are due to follow in the cities of Rijeka, Split and Osijek, though mass-market 5G is no doubt a little further off.
