5G is a reality in Switzerland. Deployed everywhere, it allows a large number of people to surf even faster. But as with 4G, this technology will undergo several phases of development. We recently learned that Sunrise (UPC) was occasionally launching standalone 5G (5G SA) as a Swiss first. Overview.
“After being the first Swiss telecommunications operator to introduce a dedicated Mobile Private Network solution (MPN Campus) a little over a year ago, Sunrise Business is expanding its offering and now integrating MPN Slicing, based on 5G Standalone (SA), in its range of intelligent 5G solutions,” the American-owned operator recently communicated.
Sunrise Business can thus offer companies specific latency times and capacities while providing them with increased security and network availability. And for the general public? “We are closely studying the introduction of the 5G SA standard and are currently carrying out one-off projects with various B2B clients,” adds Séverine de Rougemont Senior Strategic Communication Manager.
Swisscom works hard
“Swisscom is working intensively on the development of the standalone 5G network (5G SA). With the implementation of the new dual-mode 4G/5G core network, Swisscom is testing the maturity and performance of the new 5G SA technology this year in selected field trials. We are currently not giving any indication on the date of introduction of 5G SA,” says Alicia Richon, spokesperson.
And at Salt? “We cannot currently comment on the timelines for making a standalone 5G network available at Salt. To date, Salt uses a non-standalone (NSA) 5G network, which means that a mobile device connected to a 5G antenna also communicates via 4G technology,” explains Viola Lebel.
Not very obvious advantages
“For the moment, the benefits of a standalone 5G network for private customers are not yet essential, because improvements in terms of latency do not meet their current needs,” says Viola Lebel , which suggests future applications.
“However, standalone 5G will play a key role in the future development of advanced technologies such as dedicated virtual mobile networks (Network Slicing), autonomous vehicles and remote surgery, where extremely low latency and robust networking are essential,” according to the same spokesperson for Xavier Niel’s company.
Switzerland still late
My comment? Once again, Switzerland is lagging behind on the digital projects of tomorrow. On September 18, the French operator Free, also in the fold of Xavier Niel, became the first to launch autonomous 5G in France on part of the French territory, as explained here.
“5G SA is available now and at no additional cost for subscribers to the Free 5G Package. To benefit from it, they must have a compatible phone and activate the option in their Subscriber Area. Free already offers a range of 5G SA compatible terminals, in particular a range of Samsung terminals which have been tested by the Free teams.
When we know the prices of Free, we wonder what our dear operators are playing at, not even capable of activating RCS, the successor to SMS and MMS on iPhones powered by iOS 18. Lamentable?
Xavier Studer
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