It’s time for 5G to Standalone

The rich 5G vision that captured the popular imagination years ago, with articles in the media on how 5G would transform the way we live and work, has yet to be fully realized. There is growing consumer sentiment that 5G has been a letdown; that it was overhyped. But we believe the best of 5G is yet to come, and with good reason. While 5G Non-standalone (NSA) is now globally adopted to deliver enhanced smartphone experiences, many of the key innovations in 5G require 5G Standalone (SA) — a network architecture that will allow new, differentiated services that can be monetized for new revenue streams. 

However, 5G SA has been deployed by too few 5G mobile network operators (MNOs) for application developers to leverage at scale. So, it’s understandable that consumer sentiment about 5G is what it is — we are only in the beginning of our epic 5G journey. If 5G was a book, we are just past the first chapter. It might come as a surprise that most 5G networks have yet to transform to the new 5G SA architecture. Allow us to explain.

A quick look back at 5G history

Many of us do not realize the complexity of our journey to 5G. 3GPP Release 15 — the first 5G standard — was delivered in three waves, starting with support for 5G NSA in December 2017. The NSA architecture allowed a new 5G radio access network (RAN) to augment existing 4G core and RAN. Since NSA didn’t require a 5G core network to be deployed, MNOs were able to accelerate their 5G timelines and bring the 5G enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) experience to their customers sooner. 

5G NSA RAN enabled an impressive leap in mobile broadband speeds to the smartphone, new fixed wireless access (FWA) offerings, and important energy savings. However, 5G NSA was always meant to be a stepping stone to the eventual 5G SA network — one which could deliver the full potential of 5G.

5G Standalone is the cornerstone for advanced capabilities

The second wave of the Release 15 standard came in June 2018 and introduced the new 5G SA architecture. With SA, the new 5G Core (5GC) serves 5G NR base stations. Some of the most transformative innovations in 5G require the 5GC to complement the 5G RAN.

Starting with Release 16, 3GPP’s focus largely shifted to addressing the needs of the major verticals, such as industrial, enterprise and automotive use cases. Release 16 also introduced precise positioning, so 5G could serve as a single technology platform for connectivity and positioning, with the support of a global ecosystem and a broad range of spectrum options. Release 17 extended support to non-terrestrial networking (NTN) with satellites for global coverage, included a new tier of reduced capability devices called NR-Light for wide-area Internet of Things (IoT), enhancements for precise positioning, characterized the 5G performance required for boundless extended reality (XR) use cases and more. All these innovations require 5G SA infrastructure.

Starting with the launch of the X55 modem-RF system in February 2019, all Snapdragon 5G Modem-RF Systems have supported 5G SA. For transformative 5G experiences to become popular, those that take advantage of 5G’s full capabilities, a critical mass of network support for 5G SA would be needed. We don’t have critical mass today, and with only 22% of network operators investing in deploying 5G SA, we won’t reach it either unless many more operators accelerate their timelines for transitioning to 5G SA.

5G Standalone is needed for 5G Advanced and beyond

Looking forward, 5G Advanced — starting in 3GPP Release 18 — will be the main mobile innovation platform for the second part of the 5G decade. 5G Advanced will boost mobile broadband experiences and bring advanced capabilities for new verticals. Its work has already begun, and it is important that 5G SA is in place as we head into the next chapter of the 5G journey. The right time to commence the transition to 5G SA is now.

1: GSA (May 2023) 5G-Standalone May 2023 Member Report