5G SA means business – but also consumer

Operators around the world began their 5G deployment efforts with the non-standalone (NSA) version of the technology. However, 2021 has seen 5G standalone (SA) deployments ramp up. As of mid-2021, GSMA Intelligence counted 89 announced SA launches and deployment plans. The fact that 38% of 5G operators have already committed to SA is no surprise. After all, the added functionalities enabled by SA are key to delivering on the 5G promise of fully supporting enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable, low-latency communications (URLLC) and massive IoT use cases.

Support for the full set of 5G use cases helps explain why operators cite SA as the most important 5G network feature for enterprise success. Yet, it is also informative to explore if and how the technology can support consumer use cases.