It is broadly recognised that the Asia/Pacific region is leading the race to 5G. Operators in South Korea, Japan and China will be among the first ones in the world to launch commercial 5G networks of significant scale. For example, China is likely to have a pre-commercial grade 5G (soft) launch soon and 2020 is set to be the year for commercial roll out of the next generation mobile services. By then, it is expected that technologies and ecosystems will be fully ready and it will be the right timing for the full-fledged standalone (SA) mode of 5G.

As a decades-long cooperation partner with each and every operator, ZTE can understand their decision and support it. The Chinese operators all aim to be the best in their network quality and the service they can offer, in which case SA mode has its advantages.

To start with, by definition, SA mode means 5G radio built with 5G core networks, therefore it can realise all the new use cases the technologies have promised. Broadly speaking these include two types of cases. The first group is the cases that need vertical 5G environment, for instance network slicing for dedicated domains or locations or customers. The second group is typically in the “Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications” (uRLLC) category -- for instance, autonomous driving cars, or advanced industrial manufacturing. In both cases we need end-to-end 5G connectivity.