SK Telecom and Ericsson complete end-to-end 5G standalone core test

SK Telecom and Ericsson have completed end-to-end testing of 5G standalone (SA) telecommunications, the companies announced. The two used purely 5G systems, from handsets, radio stations, to cores, for the test. Connection speeds doubled and data processing speeds tripled compared to the currently commercialised 5G non-standalone (NSA) networks which use both LTE and 5G networks, SK Telecom said. In July, the telco successfully tested interoperability between a 5G SA core and a commercial network with Samsung Electronics, another telco equipment vendor of the company. SK Telecom said it expects 5G SA to be commercialised within the first half of next year. It said it will apply network splicing and mobile edge computing technologies on the standalone network to offer customers even better services. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the international telco standard-setting body, is expected to finalise the 5G SA standard in December this year. South Korean telcos have been racing to deploy a national network using sub-6GHz spectrum since 5G networks were commercialised in April.