115 operators roll out 5G Standalone networks globally
Over 115 operators in 52 countries and territories have invested in public 5G standalone (5G SA) networks, according to the latest GSA data.
This is over 21% of the 535 operators known to be investing in 5G Standalone licences, trials or deployments of any type. Of these, GSA data confirms that at least 36 operators in 25 countries and territories are understood to have launched or deployed public 5G Standalone (SA) networks, two of which have only soft-launched their 5G SA networks.
5G SA does not rely on existing 4G infrastructure and so can implement the latest improvements in the 3GPP releases to provide higher data rates for both downloads and uploads.
However this requires new devices, and the report also confirms that the number of announced 5G SA devices has now risen to 1,750 in July 2023, up from 686 at the end of 2021. As the standalone ecosystem grows, it is now supported by 86 announced modems and chipsets, with new features set to widen adoption in the future.
The GSA is also tracking organizations testing, piloting or deploying the technologies for private networks, identifying about 1,148 organisations known to be deploying or granted a licence for LTE or 5G private mobile networks. Of those, 505 are known to be using 5G networks for private mobile networks, with 66 (just over 13% of them) known to be working with 5G SA already.
These include manufacturers, academic organisations, commercial research institutes, construction, communications and IT services, rail and aviation organisations. The private mobile networks database is available to GSA Members and Associates.
A full report, including a full global list of operators investing in public 5G SA networks, is available to all GSA Members and Associates subscribing to the GSA’s GAMBoD database.
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“Operators are increasingly testing and deploying 5G standalone networks,” said Joe Barrett, President, Global mobile Suppliers Association.
“With a totally new, cloud-based, virtualised, microservices-based core infrastructure, 5G SA brings benefits including lower latency, support for massive numbers of devices, and programmable systems enabling faster and more-agile creation of services and network slices. As the momentum behind 5G SA networks and devices continues, we can expect to see more operators deploying the new services they enable such as voice over New Radio,” he said.
gsacom.com/paper/5g-standalone-july-2023-summary/
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