Andrea Dona is Chief Network Officer at Vodafone UK having joined the company as Head of Networks in March 2019. He has since managed the roll-out of Vodafone UK’s 5G and fibre networks, the company’s converged network strategy, as well as the delivery of the company’s network transformation, rationalisation and digital agenda.
Prior to this, he held a number of senior technology positions in companies such as Ericsson and T-Mobile.
In June 2023, Vodafone launched 5G Ultra, a new option for customers that blends both 5G Standalone and Non-standalone networks. This was the UK’s first 5G Standalone network for the public, and a milestone for better connectivity and the digital economy.
Like the launch of 4G in 2011, this presents an entirely new opportunity and so much hinges on the efficient rollout of 5G Standalone networks, both in terms of customer experience and economic benefit for the UK.
But what is 5G Standalone, and why is it so important?
What is 5G Standalone?
5G Standalone is the most technologically advanced telecoms network available.
Whereas most of the 5G services available today rely on some 4G technology (hence the name 5G Non-standalone), 5G Standalone is the fully upgraded version. With this comes a range of new capabilities that would not be possible on the 4G network or 5G Non-standalone network.
The first opportunity for 5G (and 5G Standalone in particular) is efficiency. With the amount of data being created and demanded by users increasing each year, the number of different devices now requiring connectivity, and the number of businesses going through digital transformation projects, networks are a bursting point. Without upgrading the network, customer experience would decline slowly, then very quickly.
The second, and perhaps most exciting, opportunity for 5G Standalone is making the impossible possible.
New capabilities, new experiences
People often overlook the unknown when it comes to 5G Standalone.
Yes, 5G Standalone will deliver faster download speeds, it will enable lower latency, it can connect many more devices simultaneously, it is more secure and more reliable, and it is more energy efficient.
Most people will be fine with that. It will improve how they use their devices day-to-day, but they are missing the main benefits. Because of these new capabilities, we will be able to do things in ways we can’t today.
When you give an engineer new tools, they will come up with something new. Sometimes that will be an improvement on what is available today (that is, after all, a type of innovation), but they might also be able to break the mould.
Think about Uber.
4G made all of the internet genuinely accessible on mobile devices. This meant Uber could create a service that would not have been possible on 3G. The same kind of innovation will happen on 5G Standalone.
Consumers
Users could soon encounter vastly more immersive experiences on their devices. This could take the form of more powerful gaming content, or maybe it would be mobile virtual and augmented virtual reality.
These are two ideas that are often discussed, but what about the ideas we aren’t even thinking about today?
With an advanced telecommunications network, supported by network slicing (a concept where we split the network into different streams of connectivity, each with its own configuration specific to the use case), we could watch sporting events as holograms playing out on a table in front of our eyes.
Smart cities
If everything and anything is connected, it would have a significant impact on our lives. Smart cities would be one of the biggest areas of benefit.
Imagine no longer having to hunt down a parking space because sensors would tell you exactly what is available and where. Or traffic lights that change their pattern depending on where congestion is in the city centre, to help the flow of cars keep moving.
These are ideas that are possible when you have the right connectivity environment, blending together 5G, the cloud, and the Internet of Things.
Robotics
Robots require very advanced telecommunications networks due to the demands of high-reliability and ultra-low latency. With some use cases, you not only have to guarantee connectivity, but also that it is as responsive as possible.
5G Standalone, along with Multi-access Edge Compute (MEC), could enable ultra-low latency where applications and connected things react in less than 10 milliseconds. By way of comparison, the 4G network generally has latency of about 50-150 milliseconds.
With the right connectivity environment, you could have autonomous vehicles or robots to deliver packages to your door.
We can’t do it alone
These are just some of the ideas, but every industry will benefit.
We could implement a healthcare system which focuses on preventing disease, not just curing it. Manufacturing will be given an efficiency boost. Delays could be removed from the transportation system. The national grid could balance demand and supply of energy better. The high street could be a much more intuitive retail experience. And education could be more immersive and personalised to the student.
But all this comes at a cost. Vodafone and the other telecoms operators are largely being asked to fund the deployment of 5G alone. Current investment forecasts suggest there is a hole of £25-30 billion if the industry is to meet Government expectations.
For Vodafone, part of the solution to get to this digital future, which offers so many benefits to UK consumers and businesses, is the proposed merger with Three UK.
By bringing together two sub-scale companies, a merged operator will be able to compete with larger players in the market to invest £11 billion in the network over the next decade. Not only will this take 5G Standalone to 99% of populated areas by 2034, it will deliver one of Europe’s most advanced 5G networks to make impossible ideas possible.
