How Singtel is creating pioneering services with 5G standalone
Singtel’s partnership with Ericsson has allowed them to take their offerings to the next level with more connectivity differentiation to meet a growing market demand for personalization.
Highlights
Singtel is utilizing its 5G standalone (SA) network and network slicing to offer differentiated connectivity services across various industries. The company has received numerous accolades for its dedication to 5G innovation and is paving the way for other service providers.
Singtel aims to increase the value of connectivity by creating personalized services meeting different performance needs from consumer and enterprise applications.
Singtel’s network slicing journey, leading the commercialization of network slicing.
The challenge
The promise of premium experiences is one of the many driving forces behind the rollout of 5G SA, but as these experiences become more immersive, using 4K video and Artificial Intelligence, the demand on networks increases, putting a potential strain on application performance and network resources.
Beyond premium experiences, service provider’s customers have also increased its requirements for more service innovation and personalization. One way to effectively achieve this is though network slicing.
However, Singtel faced challenges in exploring how the capabilities of network slicing technology could support their business targets, understanding the needs of their customers, and marrying the two to create a solution.
The solution
Network slicing technology divides a mobile network into separate virtual networks on the same physical infrastructure, each catering to different application needs like security, reliability, and performance. This enables delivering more unique connectivity experiences at specific times and locations and for specific applications with high performing connectivity.
Singtel experimented with network slicing in 2022 by offering differentiated experiences to spectators during the Singapore Grand Prix.
They later scaled the solution during the National Day Parade using Ericsson’s Priority Based Admission Control (PBAC) feature, to ensure that subscribers and prioritized users such as public safety and crowd control officers, had guaranteed access to reserved network connections throughout the whole event.
Now, Singtel is taking the next step to commercialize user experiences with User Equipment Route Selection Policy (URSP), allowing devices to switch between slices based on the application they are using. This requires core domain essential functions, such as Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), the User Plane Function (UPF) and the Policy Control Function (PCF).
The result
Navigating where to start on the journey to differentiated connectivity was never going to be easy, but with numerous accolades and awards for their dedication to 5G, Singtel has continued to commit to innovating and maximizing the potential of Standalone 5G and network slicing and is in a fantastic position to differentiate its offerings beyond connectivity, to consumer services and enterprise solutions.
“The work we’ve done in Singapore is so important,” explains Zsolt Kormanyos, CTO, Global Customer Unit, Singtel at Ericsson. “I see others not on this journey yet, and they don’t realize the things that we’ve already done, which for us, are now just the obvious next steps to take. There is a huge opportunity, and we are paving the way for the rest of the market who can use our journey as their learning.”
