Clean lines convince KPN to roll out 5G SA nationally
Dutch telco KPN claims it has built a 5G Standalone (SA) that has successfully passed through all stages of testing. With the help of its technology partner Ericsson, it used a localised test license in the 3.5GHz band to prove that a cloud gaming application could be managed in 5G SA’s neat network slices. The 5G Standalone was created in Breda, a city in the southern Netherlands. Known for its ambience, the fortified city has historic military and political significance that symbolises the security associated with standalone networking technology. It is equidistant between Rotterdam and Antwerp, the city has a population nearing 185,000 people and the wider metropolitan area has a population of 324,812.
In these circumstances Ericsson and KPN gave test users download speeds of almost 1Gbps and a latency of 14ms. Going ‘standalone’ allows 5G’s broadcasters to turn it into an independent technology for both radio and core, in a pattern akin to the confluence of Breda’s local rivers Mark and Aa. “This means smartphones will only use 5G frequency bands and the core network is fully dedicated to this new 5G standard,” said Erik Brands, director of mobile networks at KPN, explaining the metaphor.
“This is important because many future functionalities of 5G will be driven from the heart of the network. The arrival of 5G standalone will bring the next evolution of 5G with higher speeds and improved latency. In addition, it enables network slicing with which part of the network (a ‘slice’) can be optimised for a particular use case,” said Brands.
Multiple antenna sites in the area were used for the test, which saw all data exchanged in real time between the player and the gaming platform that runs in a data centre. The 3.5 GHz frequency is scheduled to become available in the Netherlands at the end of this year, said KPN, adding that it will gradually introduce 5G SA from next year. A statement KPN said 5G SA will deliver increased speeds, improved latency and networking slicing opportunities.
In another independent test, run by Ookla over the second half of 2022, KPN was found to be the best and fastest mobile network in the Netherlands for the fifth time in a row.