Jio to deploy 'standalone' 5G services, others offering non-standalone network: Ambani

On August 29, Reliance Jio, India's biggest private telecom operator by market share, announced an estimated rollout date for its 5G services in the country. At the 45th annual general meeting (AGM) of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), the holding company of Reliance Jio's Jio Platforms, Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of RIL, highlighted that the telco's 5G rollout will begin with four metropolitan cities in India — Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. Additionally, Ambani also added that Jio will offer 'standalone' (SA) 5G network in India — as opposed to a non-standalone (NSA) 5G network.

"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," Ambani said.

The statement refers to two distinct technological differences in 5G networks around the world. Every generation of telecom network uses a core network infrastructure which is dedicated to this generation. In NSA 5G, this core network infrastructure of a 5G network is shared with the network core of 4G as well. As a result, a 5G NSA network is deployed on top of 4G services, which as per various reports is not akin to 'true' 5G connectivity.

A 5G SA network, on the other hand, does not share network infrastructure with 4G network components, and is thus referred to as "true" 5G services. While SA 5G networks can offer 5G's biggest benefits such as low latencies, NSA 5G is looked upon as less expensive to deploy — something that could be important for India's tight-margin telecom industry.

Union electronics and IT minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, has touted over time that India's 5G services and subscription plans will remain competitively priced — just like 4G services. Bharti Airtel, on this note, has announced that it is deploying NSA 5G network across the country.

Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio were the two biggest spenders at India's 5G auction, accounting for 87% of the ₹1.5 lakh crore that was spent by telcos. Private operators Vodafone-Idea and new entrant Adani Data Networks have also acquired 5G spectrum to operate networks in the country.