Spark says it’ll be first to deliver a pure hit of 5G

5G stand-alone means 5G-enabled cell towers will connect back into a 5G core, resulting in an end-to-end 5G network. Photo / 123RF

Spark says it’s poised to be the first telco in New Zealand to deliver a pure 5G connection without any slower, laggier 4G link in the chain.

The telco has kicked off an upgrade to “5G stand-alone” - as it is known in the industry - after signing contracts with technology partners Ericsson and Red Hat.

A three-month trial took place last year. The full upgrade will happen over the next three years and is budgeted at $40 million to $60m. After the core is upgraded, some 80 per cent of Spark’s cell sites will be able to deliver full-blooded 5G.

While 5G networks in New Zealand currently use 4G for base connectivity, known as the ‘core’ of the mobile network, 5G stand-alone means 5G-enabled cell towers will connect back into a 5G core, resulting in an end-to-end 5G network, Spark network and operations director Renee Mateparae says.

The gist is that while Spark offered its first 5G service back in 2019 (along with Vodafone NZ, now One NZ), stand-alone 5G will unlock the mobile network technology’s full features.

“5G stand-alone will unlock capabilities like ‘network slicing’, which is one of the most transformative features of the technology. While today our network is tuned to provide the best experience across a variety of devices, network slicing provides the ability to tailor or ‘slice’ the network and then tune it based on a specific use type,” Mateparae said.

“A piece of network could be ‘sliced’ to serve a mission-critical service such as driverless cars, for example - which require the network to respond quickly and with ultra-reliability in real-time - or a gaming ‘slice’ could be created to provide the ultimate high speed, low-latency experience for gamers.”

Rivals respond

A spokesman for 2degrees, which began its 5G mobile network upgrade in 2021, said: “We don’t have a 5G stand-alone roll-out date to share at the moment. We remain focused on continuing to deliver an excellent 5G service and rolling out at pace.”

One NZ spokesman Matthew Flood said: “5G stand-alone is on our future roadmap, but right now we are focused on our customers’ more immediate needs - expanding our 5G network at pace, with over 500 sites live, and a few hundred more being built or upgraded in the coming 12 months across the country, with a focus on regional builds.

“We’re also working on our collaboration with SpaceX to provide coverage like never before across New Zealand, starting with text service by the end of 2024.”

Spark and 2degrees have partnerships with US start-up Lynk, a rival to SpaceX-owned Starlink in the putative satellite-to-mobile market which promises to offer a “cell tower in the sky service”. Neither has put a timeline on the service.

Flood added, “One NZ is also the first NZ telco to launch Cups (Control Plane and User Plane separation) on our data core network, which gives us lower latency, mobile edge computing capability and capacity and scalability for 5G and FWA growth in the years to come. We have the ability today to provide a better quality of service through the existing feature sets to meet the demands of the market right now.”

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.