Dell’Oro: Four mobile network operators launch 5G standalone in Q1 2023

It’s springtime for standalone — 5G standalone that is!

We checked in with Dell’Oro Group for its latest update on 5G standalone (SA) deployments.

“Currently we count 43 live 5G SA networks for eMMB [enhanced mobile broadband],” Dell’Oro Group research director Dave Bolan told Silverlinings over email. “For 2023, four [mobile network operators] have launched 5G SA networks,” he added.

It should be noted that Dell’Oro doesn’t factor in fixed wireless access (FWA) or private 5G networks in its SA totals.

“We would not count Telefónica Spain yet,” Bolan told us. “They have not launched 5G SA to consumers yet. They had an excellent exhibit at MWC with 26 GHz coverage, demonstrating their network is ready to go to 5G SA,” he said.

5G SA is one of the building blocks of cloud native 5G. Network updates that bring lower latency and network slicing are only really enabled by the pure 5G SA architecture. In fact, according to research released earlier this year, Deloitte Global said it expects the number of mobile network operators investing in 5G SA networks via trials, planned deployments or rollouts to grow from more than 100 operators in 2022 to at least 200 by the end of this year.