5G is yesterday's papers, as investments in 5G SA skyrocket year-on-year

If things don't take a turn for the worse, which means we'll have to go back to paper cup phones (we'll master acoustics once again), tomorrow is all about 6G.

Before we land on that blazing-fast comet that 6G is, we should enjoy what the 5G SA standard has to offer. That moment could be arriving soon, as many companies are investing heavily in their 5G core, the brain of the network that's supposed to support these advanced 5G capabilities.

Spending is way up

The latest industry reports have it that companies made 83% bigger investments in Q4 of last year compared to the same period in 2024.

A mobile network has two big parts. The first is the radio network. This one includes what you can see near you – these are towers and antennas that your phone connects to. The second part is the core network. The brains. This is the central system and it manages everything behind the scenes (routing data, authenticating users, managing services, enabling advanced features and more).

Many early 5G networks were actually built on top of existing 4G infrastructure. That version is called non-standalone (NSA) 5G. It delivers higher download and upload speeds – and that's cool – but non-standalone 5G simply can't support many advanced features.

Meanwhile, 5G SA (standalone) removes the dependency on 4G and uses a completely new core network. That unlocks things like network slicing, ultra-low latency, and better support for industrial applications. 5G SA is the step towards 6G.

Time to go 5G SA

For several years, many analysts complained that telecom companies were slow to adopt full 5G SA networks. Operators rolled out basic 5G coverage, but many delayed the expensive upgrades required for the full architecture.

But this 83% jump in spending means operators are now accelerating this process, which is a strong sign that advanced 5G deployments are finally moving forward.

The fastest growth in the last quarter came from North America and the region that includes Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).

But Europe is still behind, generally speaking. Countries in the Gulf region (which have much more important things to worry about than 5G SA right now) have been delivering much faster 5G SA speeds than Europe recently. In some cases, speeds there are five times higher than on the Old Continent.

Spain's Telefonica is trying to minimize the difference by experimenting with new uses of 5G SA, including indoor coverage in a shopping center and connectivity for helicopters in partnership with Airbus Helicopters.

In the US, things are evolving rapidly:

• T-Mobile was the first carrier to have a 5G SA network and promises big things for 2026
• AT&T has demonstrated some jaw-dropping download speeds thanks to 5G SA
• Verizon is in the 5G SA game as well and has launched an enterprise-grade network slice for fixed wireless access

There are currently 88 telecom operators around the world that have deployed 5G SA, which is impressive. Mere months ago – in November 2025, there were only 72.

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