What Is Standalone 5G And How Reliance May Benefit From It

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) held its 45th annual general meeting on Monday, August 29. The event at which chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani made several major announcements related to the company’s future plans, the key among them was the launch of 5G services by Diwali.

Ambani at its annual general meeting said that Jio will invest Rs 2 lakh crore for the roll-out of 5G telecom services it plans to initially bring in metro cities by Diwali in October.

Reliance, with more than 421 million telecom subscribers, aims to extend its 5G network to “every town” in India by the end of 2023 for which the company will deploy a standalone 5G architecture that doesn’t rely on existing 4G network and hence offers superior performance.

The company’s “standalone 5G network” is said to be cheaper, faster and more powerful than other 5G services coming to the market, the company said at its AGM.

The company can connect 100 million homes with its 5G network and further accelerate its connectivity ambitions with fixed broadband services, Ambani said.

Let’s understand what is a standalone 5G network and how it may give an edge to Reliance over other operators in the country.

What Is Standalone 5G And How Does It Differ From Non-Standalone 5G

Jio will deploy the latest version of 5G called Standalone 5G, which it claims will have zero dependencies on the 4G network.

But what does standalone 5G means? To put it simply, Standalone 5G and non-standalone 5G are two models of 5G deployment.

Standalone 5G uses the 5G New Radio (NR) access network which is a set of standards that replaces the LTE network 4G wireless communications standard.

The standalone 5G architecture is based on an end-to-end core 5G network that is built from scratch. The equipment and network functions used in this model are built keeping 5G specifications in mind.

The non-standalone 5G, on the other hand, offers 5G radio signal using the existing 4G LTE core which means it is built over an existing 4G network while the standalone allows completely independent operation of a 5G service without any interaction with an existing 4G core.

Is Standalone 5G Better Than Non-Standalone 5G?

Ambani while addressing the meeting said, “Most operators are deploying a version of 5G, called Non-Standalone 5G, which is essentially a 5G radio signal delivered over an existing 4G infrastructure. This Non-Standalone approach is a hasty way to nominally claim a 5G launch, but it won’t deliver the breakthrough improvements in performance and capability possible with 5G. In sharp contrast, Jio will deploy the latest version of 5G, called Standalone 5G, which has zero dependency on our 4G network.”

The non-standalone 5G can be rolled out faster as it uses the existing 4G infrastructure, however, when it comes to stability and speed, the standalone 5G is better.

The standalone 5G model offers higher speed, ultra-low latency, wider coverage, better services, and higher stability compared to the NSA 5G model.

Do All Smartphones Support Standalone 5G?

Standalone 5G is not supported by all smartphones. However, some smartphones may start supporting it after an update. That said, the speed and stability of 5G network may vary depending on a user’s location. 

How Reliance Is Likely To Gain From Standalone 5G?

Jio has bought a mix of wireless spectrum for 5G in the latest spectrum auction conducted last month. This is likely to give Jio 5G an edge over rival network providers, including Airtel which is set to offer non-standalone 5G.

Last month, Jio bought spectrum worth Rs 88,078 crore in the high-octane 5G auctions. In addition to the 3500 MHz mid-band that is globally earmarked for 5G, and the 26 GHz millimetre-wave band for ultra-high capacity, only Jio has the 700 MHz low-band spectrum which is essential for deep indoor coverage.

The Sub-Ghz bands (usually in the range of 700Mhz and 900Mhz) are ideal for wireless applications, cover long distances, and consume less power.

Moreover, Reliance will be the only service provider to offer standalone 5G as Airtel, and Vodafone Idea will offer non-standalone 5G, which uses the same 4G infrastructure and building on top of it.

Availability of 700MHz spectrum will mean that Jio has to upgrade only 1 lakh out of 3.5 lakh towers to cater to 80 per cent of the target 5G opportunity in India, while its rivals will have to upgrade a higher number of towers.

According to chip-maker Qualcomm, the 700MHz spectrum can achieve more than 300 Mbps of download speed in trial conditions.