Verizon finally began moving commercial traffic to its cloud-native 5G standalone (SA) core network, which opens up the ability for the carrier to offer more flexible services. It also further fills in what has been a slow ramp of commercialized 5G SA deployments.

The carrier’s 5G SA core is built on its Verizon Cloud Platform (VCP). That platform uses a containerized cloud-native architecture specifically designed to support telecom workloads. This includes the ability to integrate Verizon’s extensive mobile edge computing (MEC) plans and support standalone, non-standalone (NSA), and voice over new radio (VoNR) services.

Commercial 5G NSA networks rely on an operator’s legacy 4G LTE core for base processing and routing. A 5G SA core, which consists of the user plane, control plane, and shared data layer network functions, allows operators to deliver a more resilient core network and support highly-touted 5G services like network slicing, automation, orchestration, and mobile edge computing.

“The 5G core is a critical step in achieving our goal,” Adam Koeppe, SVP of network technology, strategy, and planning at Verizon, noted in a statement. “From the densification and virtualization work in the radio access network, to the architectural design changes in the core of the network developed specifically for telco workloads, we are working to ensure customers not only have access to 5G, but have the most advanced, secure, and robust network to support the remarkable new solutions being developed on 5G technology.”

Verizon previously pledged full commercialization of its 5G SA core in 2021, but it missed that deadline and pushed it back to this year. It joins T-Mobile US and Dish Network as the only domestic operators to have launched a 5G SA core supporting commercial traffic.

The launch also adds some much needed momentum behind the push for 5G SA deployments.

A recent report from LightCounting Market Research noted that ongoing “headwinds” have limited the deployment of 5G SA networks to just 20 at the end of last year. This was just 10% of the 200 5G non-standalone (NSA) commercial networks deployed worldwide.

The research firm explained those headwinds are led by “the lack of 5G business cases beyond enhanced mobile broadband combined with some network architecture issues” that continue “to inhibit 5GC SBA [5G core service-based architecture] rollouts.”

“Communications service providers are just sweating their EPC/vEPC [evolved packet core/virtualized evolved packet core] assets, in such conditions, there is no rush to move to 5GC SBA,” the firm wrote.

T-Mobile US was the world’s first, launching its 5G SA core in mid-2020, and just beating out SK Telecom. T-Mobile US has since expanded that SA network to support VoNR traffic.

Dish launched its multivendor, greenfield 5G SA core network and commercial service in June.

AT&T has repeatedly delayed its plans. The carrier initially planned to launch its 5G SA core in 2020, but pushed those plans due to technology maturity. A company executive recently noted that AT&T was continuing to test the technology in lab environments.

“We’ve always said we’re going to deploy this 5G when the ecosystem is ready,” Marachel Knight, SVP of technology and planning operations at AT&T Communications, said during a fireside chat at the recent ConnectX event. “Are there devices there to take advantage of that? So, it’s a very methodical approach for us.”