The race for 5G adoption is on, all around the world. While some countries in Europe, Asia, and North America are at the forefront of it, some in continents such as Africa and South America are far behind... such that the thought of it becoming a standard anytime soon remains far from reality.
According to a publication by German Business Daily, the Chinese city of Shenzhen has over 46,000 5G base stations, while in Germany, there are only 850 mature 5G base stations. In other words, the number of 5G base stations in Shenzhen exceeds that of Germany by 50 times.
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It doesn't just end there. In terms of 5G deployment, China is not just ahead of Germany but the whole of Europe put together. In fact, including Africa.
The city of Shenzhen is home to 13 million people and presently has the most important 5G community on earth. If you talk about its fifth-generation network, the city uses 5G SA without dependence on 4G infrastructure. However, the case is a bit different in Germany.
The article says German network operators Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, and Telefónica claim to have 5G networks that serve millions of Germans. However, these networks do not rely on mature 5G communications. Instead, they use cheap software updates to make the existing network suitable for 5G.
In other words, these German networks aren't using "true 5G" since the infrastructure being used isn't that of 5G. Customers will eventually see the 5G logo on their smartphone, though there is little or no actual difference in Internet speed.
Shenzhen has the highest number of 5G base stations in China, and as well, it's the first city with full coverage of 5G independent networking. To add to it, Shenzhen's total number of 5G standard-essential patents is the world's largest.
Accounting for 70% of the world's total 5G base stations, China is said to have 718,000 of the fifth-generation network base stations. The country is expected to have over 1 million 5G base stations at the end of 2021.