T-Mobile US says standalone 5G brings ‘one step closer’ promise by enabling advanced capabilities like VONR network slicing
T-Mobile US customers in limited areas of Portland, Ore and Salt Lake City who have the Samsung Galaxy S21 5G now have access to Voice over New Radio (VoNR) services. The carrier says additional cities will be added to the list for the rest of this year.
According to T-Mobile US, the VoNR standalone (SA) 5G promises to enable advanced capabilities such as “one step closer” network slicing that relies on uninterrupted connection to the 5G core. When it comes to voice calls, in particular, service providers say customers will have access to VoNR so they can expect to be seamlessly connected to 5G for the entire call. Customers will also notice a slightly faster call set-up time, which means they have less delay in dialing a number and the phone starts ringing.
“We don’t just have the country’s top 5G network. T-Mobile is setting the pace for global providers as we move the industry forward – now launching another important service over 5G, ”said Neville Ray, T-Mobile’s President of Technology. “5G is already taking a new level of engagement, transforming how our customers use their smartphones and bringing unprecedented connectivity to areas that are in dire need. And it’s just going to get thanks to the incredible T-Mobile team and our partners who are tirelessly innovating and advancing 5G capabilities every day. ”
Some of these partners include IDC, Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung. They, too, see this latest development as an important step towards the implementation of SA 5G.
For example, Jason Leigh, IDC’s 5G and Mobility research manager, comments: “VoNR 5G represents the next step in the journey to maturity — an application that exists and operates in a fully end-to-end 5G environment. Moving to VoNR will be a key factor in developing a new immersive app experience that has to tap into the full bandwidth, latency and density benefits offered by a 5G standalone network. “
T-Mobile claims to be US The first in the world To provide nationwide SA 5G. It is certainly the first of its direct competitors in the United States, it set up the network in August 2020 using its 600 MHz spectrum. At the recent Big 5G event in Austin, Texas, Ray said RCR Wireless News In addition to supporting 5G voice calls in the end, VoNR sees its investment in low-band as the “foundation” of the company’s network, without a non-standalone 5G or LTE anchor.
“If you think about our competition, they started in a very different place with mmWave. Almost 180, maybe a 540, I don’t know, ”he said. “But if you think about a lot of uses, be it automotive or agriculture, where you may need less latency but less data services with broad, wide coverage, you can’t do that with mmWave. You need to do this with low-band 5G. We always thought it was going to be your foundation. That level of our coverage is really strong. It is a material lead. “
Carrier’s Extended Range 5G (Low-band 600 MHz Spectrum) covers 315 million people across 1.8 million square miles, with the ultra capacity of 225 million people nationwide under 5G (2.5 GHz Spectrum). The career is expected to cover 260 million in 2022 and 300 million next year.
