115 operators in 52 countries and territories have invested in public 5G standalone networks, according to the latest GSA data. This equates to 21.4% of the 535 operators known to be investing in 5G licenses, trials or deployments of any type. Of these, GSA data confirms that at least 36 operators in 25 countries and territories are now understood to have launched or deployed public 5G Standalone (SA) networks, two of which have only soft-launched their 5G SA networks. Reflecting the growth in 5G SA network deployments, the new 5G Standalone report also confirms that the number of announced 5G SA devices has now risen to 1,750 in July 2023, up from 686 at the end of 2021. As the 5G SA ecosystem grows, it is now supported by 86 announced modems and chipsets, with new features set to widen adoption in the future.
In addition to the investment in 5G SA for public mobile networks, GSA is also tracking organizations testing, piloting or deploying 5G SA technologies for private networks. As of the last update in May 2023, GSA had collated information about 1,148 organizations known to be deploying or granted a license for LTE or 5G private mobile networks. Of those, 505 are known to be using 5G networks for private mobile networks, with 66 (just over 13% of them) known to be working with 5G SA already. They include manufacturers, academic organizations, commercial research institutes, construction, communications and IT services, rail, and aviation organizations. The private mobile networks database is available to GSA Members and Associates.
The new GSA report, 5G Standalone, tracks the emergence of the 5G SA system, including the availability of chipsets and devices for customers, plus the testing and deployment of 5G SA networks by public mobile network operators and private network operators.
A full report, including a full global list of operators investing in public 5G SA networks, is available to all GSA Members and Associates subscribing to the GSA’s GAMBoD database.
“Operators are increasingly testing and deploying 5G standalone networks,” said Joe Barrett, president of GSA. “With a totally new, cloud-based, virtualized, microservices-based core infrastructure, 5G SA brings benefits including lower latency, support for massive numbers of devices, and programmable systems enabling faster and more-agile creation of services and network slices. As the momentum behind 5G SA networks and devices continues, we can expect to see more operators deploying the new services they enable such as voice over New Radio.”
GSA is tracking the emergence of the 5G SA system, including the availability of chipsets and devices for customers, plus the testing and deployment of 5G SA networks by public mobile network operators as well as private network operators. This report is the latest in an ongoing series summarizing market trends, drawing on data collected in GSA’s various databases covering chipsets, devices, spectrum, and networks.