Orange and Vodafone launch 5G SA amid sluggish global rollout

Both Vodafone and Orange are claiming market firsts with their respective launches of 5G standalone (SA) networks: Vodafone declared it was the first mobile network operator to launch a 5G SA network in the UK, although coverage is initially restricted to customers in London, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Bath, Glasgow, and Birmingham.

Vodafone UK is not the group’s first operating company to launch 5G SA: that honour goes to Vodafone Germany, which took its commercial standalone network live in April 2021 and has been expanding it ever since.

As for Orange, it elected Spain as its frontrunner for 5G SA, and is currently testing the technology in its domestic market of France. Orange Spain is also the first operator in the country to launch 5G SA, albeit not nationally. Only Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Seville will initially have what Orange is calling “5G+” coverage, with more cities to be added during 2023. The key suppliers are Ericsson, Nokia and Oracle Communications.

5G SA network launches are still relatively scarce worldwide, and with good reason. It is no easy task shifting to a fully standalone 5G core network that no longer relies on the existing 4G core for traffic support.

In addition, not many applications yet require this more advanced 5G technology, with today’s non-standalone (NSA) networks capable of coping with current requirements. However, operators believe 5G SA is a necessary step if they are to remain competitive in future.

Orange cites 5G SA advantages such as better indoor 5G coverage, thanks to the use of native 5G bands; low latency for online gaming, live video streaming, and more; longer battery life for handsets, due to less signalling and the deployment of network functionalities that also favour better energy efficiency; an increased number of connected devices allowing up to one million connections per km sq, which it said is 100 times more than the capacity of existing technologies; and increased security.

For enterprises, the operator points to the ability of 5G SA to meet the need for flexible, scalable, reliable and secure connectivity for real-time applications.

“Through its network slicing capability, Orange’s network will be able to offer virtual networks that will be responsible for allocating the necessary network resources to guarantee the provision of critical services or meet specific customer needs, offering different levels of quality, availability, privacy and security,” the group said.

As things stand, most 5G networks launched today are non-standalone. Although 5G SA deployments may pick up during 2023.

According to the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) in January, at least 38 operators in 23 countries and territories are understood to have launched or deployed public 5G SA. Dell’Oro Group said it had identified 39 operators that had launched 5G SA by the end of 2022, with recent additions including Reliance Jio, China Telecom-Macau, and Globe Telecom.

The GSA further noted that around 20 operators are deploying or piloting 5G SA for public networks, and 31 are planning to deploy the technology. The association has also identified 17 operators as being involved in evaluations, tests or trials of 5G SA.

Overall, 112 operators in 52 countries and territories worldwide are believed to be investing in public 5G SA networks in the form of trials, planned or actual deployments.