The agile telco not only needs to tap into new technology to succeed, it must also make sure it is getting the best out of established solutions as well. Antony Savvas looks at some of the areas that service providers should consider.
The IoT field is a key battleground when it comes to providers choosing the right technology to deliver evolving services. The advent of mobile IoT around long term evolution for machines (LTE-M), the low-power, wide-area (LPWA) cellular technology for IoT, and narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT), the low-power, wide-area cellular technology designed to connect static devices that send small amounts of data infrequently, caused a buzz a few years ago. But many operators stuck with established 2G and 3G solutions, as they worked – that is, before their sunsets.
“The reality of the last four years has been messy. During this time, the industry has surfaced several practical lessons. Organisations that migrated early encountered them first, and organisations migrating now can benefit from what the industry has learned,” says Telenor IoT.
It says early adopters of the new solutions often experienced roaming gaps, with the local availability of NB-IoT roaming being “inconsistent”, with major operators such as AT&T and NTT DoCoMo limiting or never enabling NB-IoT roaming, leaving single-mode devices dark in key markets. In addition, early devices with immature firmware often required manual or remote resets to re-establish connections during network changes, leading to costly physical interventions.
And some companies deployed LPWA-only modules, only to realise they needed dual-mode hardware and complex SIM profile management to achieve the global reach they could have had instantly with standard 4G.
Fears that 4G would soon follow 2G into retirement were unfounded. Based on current operator roadmaps, says Telenor, 4G is expected to remain the backbone of global IoT well into the 2030s in most major markets. “By waiting, you can now deploy 4G technology that offers a secure ten-year lifecycle without the growing pains of new tech,” says the firm.
5G reduced capability (RedCap) is a streamlined 5G standard designed to bridge the gap between high-performance smartphones and low-power IoT devices, which Telenor IoT describes as “promising”. However, RedCap is defined for 5G standalone (SA) networks, requiring SA for full commercial and roaming grade deployment, which is still in early rollout, says Telenor IoT.
Evolving 5G
Speaking of 5G, the global 5G market has entered a “strategically focused phase of development”, shifting from rapid network rollouts to a period defined by network quality, architectural maturity and service differentiation, according to the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA).
The GSA’s State of Market report says that while 5G expansion continues worldwide, the industry is no longer measured simply by the number of network launches. Instead, operators are increasingly judged by how effectively they evolve their networks and convert advanced capabilities into commercial value.
The report notes that 392 operators have now launched 5G services, representing “steady growth”, but emphasises “the more significant trend” is the broadening of 5G’s role across industries and use cases.
“This shift in the 5G market is a natural and necessary evolution,” says Kadams Radhakrishnan, chief technical director of Lyca Mobile. “As the industry moves beyond rollout scale toward quality, innovation and real-world use cases, MVNOs have an important role to play in translating advanced network capabilities into accessible, customer-focused services.”
The GSA research also says investment in 5G Advanced – 3GPP Release 18 and beyond, and the evolutionary next phase of 5G technology that seeks to bridge the gap to 6G – is “gathering pace”, with 35 operators now engaged in development, an increase of 71% since 2025.
Get more out of your network
In a clear example of getting more out of what you already have, Ericsson and VodafoneThree in the UK have completed what they describe as a “world first” network upgrade. They have successfully unified core-level sharing through Ericsson’s deployment of multi-operator core network (MOCN) technology with VodafoneThree’s existing multi-operator radio access network (MORAN) infrastructure over a multi-vendor 4G and 5G network.
This is said to mark the first time any operator has integrated core and radio sharing at a national scale over a multi-vendor environment.
Ericsson was VodafoneThree’s lead partner in the technology design and deployment, enabling the two networks to operate as a shared resource while maintaining separate cores, “a pragmatic, phased approach”, says Ericsson. The project is said to have delivered immediate customer-visible improvements, “while building the foundation for long-term network optimisation and 5G Standalone evolution”, says Ericsson.
By integrating these technologies on more than 10,000 sites across the UK, up to 28.6m Vodafone and Three customers are automatically connecting to the best available coverage, whether that’s on the Vodafone or Three network. It’s one of the first major benefits to subscribers following the Vodafone and Three merger, with millions of customers experiencing higher speeds for everyday browsing and streaming, as well as improved coverage and reliability when using 4G and 5G.
“This world-first network upgrade shows how VodafoneThree is using cutting-edge technology to transform the UK’s digital infrastructure,” says Andrea Donà, the chief network officer at VodafoneThree. “By unifying core and radio sharing at a national level, while also introducing intelligent orchestration and dynamic capacity management, we’re setting a new benchmark for network performance.”
Luca Orsini, the head of Ericsson North Europe, adds: “This milestone with VodafoneThree is a testament to what disciplined engineering and close collaboration can achieve at national scale. Deploying MOCN technology across a live, multi-vendor 4G and 5G network at this scale was a genuinely complex engineering challenge.”
Antony Savvas