The rollout of 5G radio access network technology has had its fair share of bumps in the road. The perception gap between potential, hype and materialised benefits is still being navigated by the telecoms industry.
Standalone 5G, is starting to become widely available and according to GlobalData senior principal analyst John Marcus it could mean that “the full palette of features enabled by the 5G core network and requisite radio spectrum will be realised.”
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When 5G radio access networks (RAN) were first rolled out, the technology was overlaid on a 4G LTE core, offering the benefits of 5G without having to build a completely new network. This type of 5G is referred to as non-standalone 5G.
As 5G radio access networks develop, operators are moving to 5G standalone (5G SA), which essentially means devices communicating with each other directly over a cloud native 5G network core without using the 4G LTE core at all.
This direct communication is said to be a step change in quality and reliability of communications. But perhaps more importantly for businesses that use those networks, it presents opportunities for a range of new products and services.
Indeed, the enterprise market is where 5G was meant to shine, helping to connect and digitise business operations while bringing a new source of revenue growth for network operators, according to Marcus.
“Rolling out 5G has not happened overnight, and most network operators elected to take an evolutionary approach to maximise their investments in their 4G core networks while waiting for the ecosystem to provide 5G SA-certified devices,” he says.
So-called “massive IoT”, “critical IoT” (for ultra-reliable low latency communications), fixed wireless access, private and campus networks are all new services that would all benefit from the advances in capacity, throughput, latency, and network orchestration that 5G—and especially SA 5G—would bring, according to Marcus.
5G SA enables full potential of network slicing
But a process called network slicing is where 5G SA is making a significant impact. Network slicing’s full potential will come with standalone 5G, according to Marcus. “It will enable a single physical network infrastructure to be divided into multiple virtual slices dedicated for specific use cases or applications, providing highly customised guaranteed performance characteristics,” he writes in an analyst note explaining the benefits.
5G SA network slicing also provides benefits to telecom service providers on the operational side of their mobile networks, providing service flexibility (enabling an exponential increase in portfolio without adding cost) and the ability to deliver tailored services faster, more efficiently, and with strong security characteristics, adds Marcus.
According to the GSA (the Global mobile Suppliers Association), a not-for-profit industry organisation representing mobile suppliers, only 21% of operators known to be investing in 5G have deployed public 5G SA networks so far but Marcus says this percentage will climb over the next couple of years, leading to even more new enterprise services taking advantage of it.
Once this happens, service providers can begin to design, launch, and even co-create network slicing offers for horizontal and vertical applications, including “B2B2X” services where an enterprise may include a 5G slice in its own digital offerings.
In the UK, 5G and 5G SA capability aligns with the Labour government’s all elusive growth agenda. According to Vodafone research, in August 2024, UK small and medium enterprises are missing out on up to £8.6bn a year in productivity savings due to the slow roll-out of standalone 5G.
Ericsson offering 5G SA for flexible services
Ericsson UK CEO Katherine Ainley says 5G SA is shaping up to have profound impacts on businesses across the board and, indeed, represents multibillion pound market opportunity across many industries.
Ainley agrees that one of the most profound capabilities of 5G SA is network slicing. “We’re already seeing this put to great use in live broadcasting. Major international events like the 2025 Six Nations Rugby and the Euros last year were live streamed and broadcast over network slices on public standalone networks, showcasing the technology’s reliability, quality, and unprecedented flexibility compared with traditional methods,” says Ainley.
Point of sale is another real-world application that Ericsson is seeing increasing demand for. “At live events including Glastonbury and the Belfast Christmas Market last year, thousands of sales were processed over network slicing on 5G SA,” says Ainley who explains that it is the priority connection and low latency which allows for real-time payment processing and verification, preventing lost payments and fraud issues that typically affect about four percent of transactions.
Ainley is optimistic that current 5G SA usage is just the beginning. “As standalone networks become more widespread and we see more compatible devices hit the market, the possibilities are endless,” she says citing Vodafone research, in August 2024, that found 39% of UK companies are ready to invest in 5G SA, with 14% making the move of the next 12 months.
While the potential for major operational efficiency gains in an increasingly competitive digital landscape are evident. “We can’t forget about AI either,” says Ainley.
5G SA will be crucial in ensuring access to AI driven services in real time, anywhere. Ericsson launched Aduna in September 2024, leading a partnership organisation of twelve global operators, Vonage and Google to streamline access to network APIs built on industry-wide standard, CAMARA.
“With Aduna, we’re working with a global community of operators to ensure businesses and developers can tap into these advanced capabilities globally, enabling them to offer truly transformational applications and services as this space evolves,” says Ainley.
What’s next for 5G?
Looking ahead, what of 5G SA adoption in the short to medium term, particularly as the industry turns its attention to 6G adoption? At MWC 2025 there was a lot of posturing over 6G, says GlobalData research director Emir Halilovic.
While operators are offering services and personalised product lines enabled by the network slicing capacity of 5G SA, the industry is looking towards the next step changes in radio access network technology, firstly, with 5G SA followed by, 5G Advanced on the journey towards 6G.
“5G Advanced is an incremental increase in capabilities, which means an incremental increase in revenues but not a revolution,” says Halilovic explaining why the topic of 5G Advanced did not garner high levels of interest at the world’s premier mobile congress this year.
Telecoms is a slow moving industry, mainly as a function of the massive infrastructure investment needed to implement change. But it is an important factor for the application of so many emerging technologies that it remains a space to watch as it 5G SA becomes more widespread.
