Britain left waiting for "real" 5G

The government has demanded standalone 5G for all by 2030. Is it a realistic deadline? James O'Malley investigates

When King Charles and Queen Camilla were crowned in May, it may have seemed like a strange relic from the distant past - the ceremony's origins trace back nearly a thousand years to William the Conqueror in 1066. But behind the scenes, something much more futuristic was taking place.

Just outside Westminster Abbey, ITN's news cameras were rolling, capturing footage that would be broadcast live on ITV News' special coverage. For several of the key shots, instead of relying on a satellite truck, the cameras were beaming back their images using Vodafone's "standalone" 5G network, on its own dedicated network "slice" of protected bandwidth, in the highest-profile test yet of the technology.

5G standalone - or "5G SA" - is arguably 5G in its true form. It's only this version of the technology that makes possible many of the original promises of 5G, such as lower latency and more reliable connections for industrial and professional use-cases.

And, hopefully, it's the future, too. In April, the government announced that it wanted "all populated areas" served by 5G SA networks by 2030, but that it was only putting up £40m to "encourage innovative 5G investment across the private and public sector".

Will that be anywhere near enough to deliver the "real" 5G we've been waiting for?

A slice of the action

The story begins back before 5G first launched around the world. Mobile networks were getting increasingly crowded, and bandwidth more in demand - so faced with a potential bottleneck in capacity, mobile operators made a crucial decision.

"The splitting point was the decision back in 2015 to bring out the 5G standard a little bit earlier than it was ready," said Colin Bryce, director of mobile network engineering at network infrastructure firm CommScope.