India’s largest service provider, Reliance Jio, and the second-largest telco in the US, T-Mobile, claim to have achieved the world’s first 5G standalone (5G SA) roaming connection.
This will allow T-Mobile to extend the benefits of the 5G SA network used in its home country for those traveling to India. Similarly, Jio’s customers traveling to the US will be able to enjoy 5G SA network capabilities. This potentially opens the door for other 5G SA service providers to sign international roaming agreements.
“T-Mobile and Jio are laying the foundation for a new generation of cross-network capabilities and services, from differentiated consumer and enterprise experiences to AI-enabled services, leveraging the unique capabilities of 5G standalone. This is the future of 5G SA: seamless, interoperable, and built to unlock new value,” said Mark Yarkosky, head of international network, partnership and services at Jio. The two companies were in the news last year for testing 5G SA international roaming.
Jio and T-Mobile used Syniverse’s mediation platform to enable cross-border 5G SA. Globally, very few service providers have deployed 5G SA, making international roaming very difficult to execute. Fewer than 100 service providers have deployed 5G SA so far, which makes it difficult to form international roaming agreements. Jio is the only Indian service provider that has deployed 5G SA network architecture, which relies on a distinct 5G core while the more widespread 5G non-standalone (NSA) uses a 4G one.
“We started this journey back in 2020, laying the groundwork for a 5G Standalone future – and today, we’re continuing that leadership with Jio India as a partner on a global stage. Leave one country, land in another, and your 5G experience is just as seamless – whether you’re streaming, sharing travel reels or running business apps. That’s the breakthrough power of this technology,” said Ankur Kapoor, chief network officer at T-Mobile.
The international roaming agreement is significant because 5G SA networks are fundamentally different from the 4G-based roaming model. 5G SA uses 5G core rather than 4G Evolved Packet Core (EPC), so the telcos have to set up compatible interfaces between their cores.
