- AT&T and Verizon finally joined T-Mobile in launching nationwide 5G standalone (SA) networks
- AT&T said millions of customers are already using its 5G SA network
- Verizon confirmed its own nationwide 5G SA deployment, but execs caution that full benefits depend on device support catching up
T-Mobile launched its nationwide 5G standalone (SA) network in 2020, and five years later AT&T and Verizon are making the same declarations.
In a blog post today, AT&T Network CTO Yigal Elbaz said AT&T is moving customers onto its nationwide 5G SA network in select areas every day.
AT&T’s 5G SA status isn’t a surprise because AT&T told Fierce in a statement last month that its 5G SA network was deployed nationwide. That confirmed earlier suspicions because in July, the operator announced that it was offering RedCap nationwide, which is the hot new IoT technology that runs on 5G SA.
Millions of customers already are on AT&T’s 5G SA network, according to Elbaz. “We’ll continue to scale 5G standalone over time and set the stage for next generation applications and services,” he said.
5G SA devices catching up
Whereas 5G non-standalone (NSA) relies on older 4G LTE infrastructure for the core, 5G SA does not; it operates independent of LTE and offers more bells and whistles than plain old NSA, like network slicing. Lower latency is an oft-cited advantage of 5G SA.
As with any new network technology, its usefulness depends on the devices that support it. In his blog post, Elbaz said they’re expanding 5G SA availability to more customers as device support and provisioning allow.
Fierce received a similar answer from Verizon when we asked about its 5G SA status.
At the Mobile Future Forward 2025 conference in Seattle last month, Verizon Consumer Group CEO Sowmyanarayan Sampath said Verizon’s 5G SA is nationwide but that they were continuing to add more sites and didn’t want to overpromise with devices.
“What we didn't want to do is make a big deal about standalone core when devices are just not capable of doing it, and then it creates tension in the people's heads,” he told Fierce. “Our device ecosystem will catch up to it.”
5G SA-capable devices include the latest smartphone models from Apple, Samsung and Google.
Elbaz noted that the new Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Apple Watch SE 3 are all available on AT&T’s 5G RedCap network.
5G SA in the wild
Dell’Oro Group Director Dave Bolan spotted Verizon’s consumer 5G SA network in Redwood City, California, ahead of Apple’s launch of the Ultra 3 5G smartwatch, which uses the RedCap specification and therefore, far less power than standard 5G devices.
A speed test using his Samsung Galaxy Ultra 24 in a Verizon store showed an impressive 977 Mbps download speed when on 5G SA in the 3700 MHz band.
According to Dell’Oro, 71 mobile network operators have launched 5G SA for consumers, including five launches in 2025.