Forum Discussion
5G or 4g+
Are Smarty mobile using a 5g standalone network or are they still using the 4g spectrum to give customers a 4g+ service?
5 Replies
Maisie SMARTY is using 5G Non-Standalone. Three's core doesn't support 5G Standalone too, and many MVNOs (other than Sky Mobile recently) don't have 5G SA. The Vodafone merger does not give access to 5G SA as they're only sharing masts and spectrum, and their cores are still separate.
5G Non-Standalone essentially just bolts on a 5G band onto 4G, much like your typical Carrier Aggregation you see introduced in LTE-Advanced (the 4G+ icon means you are Carrier Aggregating). This is called DCNR, specifically EN-DC. On my phone with 5G, I connect to LTE bands B1 (2100MHz) @ 15 MHz bandwidth, B3 (1800MHz) @ 20MHz BW, B32 (1500MHz) @ 20MHz BW, and 5G NR band n78 (3500MHz) @ 100MHz BW.
Maisie They use both 4G and 5G where available.
Information available here:
My question was what kind of 5g. There are 2 types, one runs off the back of the 4g spectrum so really it’s just LTE+, it has faster speeds but not to the levels 5g can get to and the latency is slower, coverage poorer.
And there is true 5g or stand alone 5g that runs off a 5g spectrum. It’s has the enhanced speeds, better latency, more coverage (indoor and outdoor).
I can’t find anywhere to say if they have upgraded the network to 5gSA.
