Deploying fifth-generation (5G) networks in emerging markets demands a balance between performance targets and constraints in budget, spectrum, and infrastructure. We use MATLAB simulations to quantify how radio and architectural levers - MIMO (beamforming, diversity, spatial multiplexing), carrier aggregation (CA), targeted spectrum refarming to New Radio (NR), mmWave propagation with blockage/rain, and Non-Standalone (NSA) versus Standalone (SA) cores - affect capacity, coverage, latency, and interference robustness, with D2D and M2M as complements to wide-area access. Beamforming improves cell-edge SNR by about 3-6 dB, while spatial multiplexing dominates at moderate/high SNR via multi-stream gains. Throughput scales strongly with CA: increasing from 1 to 5x20-MHz carriers raises peak rate from about 200 Mb/s to about 1 Gb/s at 30 dB SNR; water-filling adds 5-12% over equal power at mid-SNR. Targeted mid-band refarming to NR increases median throughput by 60-90% in urban and 40-70% in rural scenarios when sub-1-GHz layers preserve coverage. At 28 GHz, rain and human blockage add about 8-30 dB excess loss, so viable mmWave deployment concentrates in LOS hot zones with narrow-beam arrays and short inter-site distances. NSA delivers broader initial coverage than SA by reusing LTE/EPC, while SA becomes attractive as transport improves (e.g., >= 10 Gb/s and < 5 ms RTT) and site density grows. We synthesize these results into a practical roadmap: start NR on NSA, prioritize CA-centric spectrum strategies with focused refarming, densify selectively in demand hotspots, and migrate to SA as backhaul and device ecosystems mature.

5G migration, emerging markets, MIMO, carrier aggregation, spectrum refarming, mmWave, NSA/SA, D2D, M2M