Vodafone Idea (Vi) is ready for both 5G standalone (SA) and 5G non-standalone (NSA) architecture. Vi has been conducting 5G trials in two parts of India, including Pune, Maharashtra and Gandhinagar, Gujarat, for months now. The telco is utilising the spectrum allotted by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for the 5G trials. Vodafone Idea’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Jagbir Singh, during the 5G use cases demonstrations held in Pune recently, said that the telco is ready for both 5G SA and 5G NSA.
Vodafone Idea Likely to Go With 5G NSA First
Vodafone Idea (Vi), much like every other telecom operator, is likely to go ahead with 5G NSA first. Telcos can use their existing 4G networks and upgrade them to deliver 5G services with 5G NSA. With NSA, operators can ensure a faster rollout of the 5G networks.
However, with 5G SA, a dedicated 5G network is built from scratch. It will take a lot more time, money but will be able to deliver ultra-low-latencies as well as super-fast speeds. However, neither of the telcos is expected to go with 5G SA.
Vodafone Idea is also expected to leverage its existing 4G networks and deliver 5G to India as fast as possible. The telco has been able to achieve peak download speeds of 4.2 Gbps and upload speeds of close to 200 Mbps.
In partnership with Nokia and Ericsson along with other ecosystem partners, the telco is aggressively conducting 5G trials and is leading the charge. Already, multiple innovative use cases of the 5G networks have been developed by the telco and its partners, while many more are expected to come in the future.
While 5G SA is going to deliver a better quality 5G experience to the users, 5G NSA is what all of the operators will be going for. Even globally, most of the operators have chosen to go ahead with 5G NSA instead of SA to save costs and decrease new network rollout times.
