Prospect: 5G SA Still A Separate Part

5G standalone, 5G SA, is still difficult to deploy, but even so, the industry is continuing to advance towards the next technology known as “5G Advanced” in 5G SA.
5G Non standalone (5G NSA) is the first iteration of network technology. It essentially requires a 4G core network as the anchor for the new 5G Radio Access Network (RAN). It is estimated that 5G NSA currently supports over 1 billion users worldwide.
But the development of the next generation 5G technology, 5G SA, has not been smooth. Although 5G SA eliminates the need for 4G anchor networks and supports technologies such as 5G New Radio Voice (VoNR) and network slicing, it has proven difficult to deploy.

Current status of 5G SA deployment
Dave Bolan, Research Director of Dell’Oro Group, wrote, “Reliance Jie, China Telecom Macau, and Global Telecom reached out in the fourth quarter to help the number of 5G SA Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMMB) networks launched in 2022 exceed that of 2021.”
Earlier this year, Dell’Oro reported that only 39 global operators deployed 5G SA, which is disappointing compared to over 200 5G NSA networks and over 700 LTE networks.
T-Mobile in the United States was one of the first large operators to launch 5G SA, and since then, other operators including Dish Network, Telefonica, and KDDI have also launched 5G SA. But other network operators have explained why this is not an easy transition.
Howard Watson, Chief Technology Officer of British Telecommunications (BT), stated last year that “launching the 5G core will take a considerable amount of time due to significant changes in the underlying infrastructure.”
At the same time, Verizon Network Manager Joe Russo expressed this view on his company’s delayed deployment of 5G SA: “We believe that 5G SA will undoubtedly become another driver of new use cases. However, all the data I have seen – including internal testing and external testing occurring in the market – tells me that SA still needs some time.”
VoNR is progressing slowly
In the world of 5G, voice calls seem to be a hindsight. On most 5G NSA networks, voice calls are still directly downgraded to 4G.
5G SA has opened up the potential to run voice calls on 5G, but some companies that deployed this technology early on are progressing slowly towards VoNR.

For example, AT&T was still testing this technology in May, while T-Mobile slowly expanded its VoNR service after launching 5G SA in 2020. But other companies do not have the ability to rely on 4G for voice calls. Dish Network does not operate 4G networks, so VoNR is forced to work on its 5G SA network.
Dish executives lament the challenge of launching VoNR, believing it hinders the company’s ability to put users online unless they are data users. But in recent months, these issues have eased as Dish has expanded its VoNR services to more markets.
Looking forward to network slicing
Among the many services supported by 5G SA technology, network slicing may be one of the most anticipated. This is because it may allow network operators to allocate a large amount of network capacity for specific customers and use cases, and enable them to provide faster and more reliable services than the connections available on public networks.
Mike Irizarry, Chief Technology Officer of Scellar, stated earlier this year that part of the reason operators are turning to 5G SA is to apply network slicing technology to their new Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) services.
Next is 5G Advanced
But 5G SA is not the last stop on the train of network technology development. The standard organization behind 5G, 3GPP, confirmed to Light Reading in 2021 that “5G Advanced” is the official new name for Release 18 and subsequent versions of the organization.
3GPP releases new wireless network technology specifications approximately once a year. 5G first appeared in the organization’s Release 15 in 2017. Release 18 is currently planned to be fully released in early 2024. According to 3GPP, the 18th edition of the 5G standard package should include technologies such as improving network energy efficiency and artificial intelligence network applications.