Network Slicing

Network slicing partitions a single physical network into multiple virtual networks, each tuned for specific performance, latency, or reliability requirements, all running on shared infrastructure. It depends on 5G standalone’s flexible, software-defined core, and is a key enabler of differentiated services — dedicated slices for enterprises, critical communications, or specific applications — and therefore a route to new operator revenue. In practice, slicing has advanced more slowly than early expectations, constrained by standalone deployment pace, operational complexity, and unproven demand. For operators, the question is which customers will pay for guaranteed, differentiated connectivity; for enterprises, whether a slice beats a private network. This channel tracks network slicing standards, deployments, and commercial models, with analysis of where slicing is delivering real services and where it remains a capability waiting for a market.

VodafoneThree taps Ericsson and Nokia for UK 5G SA rollout

VodafoneThree taps Ericsson and Nokia for UK 5G SA rollout
Fresh off its merger, VodafoneThree has locked in eight-year vendor deals with Ericsson and Nokia to underpin a £11 billion UK network build that is front-loaded for rapid 5G Standalone coverage gains. VodafoneThree selected Ericsson and Nokia as primary technology partners for one of the largest privately funded mobile infrastructure programs in Europe, with contracts collectively valued at over £2 billion. In year one, close to three quarters of the population are targeted for access to its fastest 5G services, rising to about 90% population coverage on 5G Standalone by year three and reaching roughly 99.95% by 2034 under a regulated, fully funded build plan.

KDDI Starlink on iPhone: Direct-to-Cell Satellite Data

KDDI Starlink on iPhone: Direct-to-Cell Satellite Data
KDDI’s move to enable satellite data on recent iPhones via “au Starlink Direct” is a meaningful step toward resilient, nationwide connectivity that blends terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks. KDDI now supports satellite data communication on all models of iPhone 13 through iPhone 17, plus iPhone Air—21 models in total, so consumers and field teams can use essential apps when they are outside cellular coverage. The satellite layer augments KDDI’s 5G/4G LTE footprint; combined, the operator aims to cover virtually all of Japan’s geography, not just its population centers. Notably, the service is available to au subscribers and customers of other carriers.

SoftBank 5G HAPS payload delivers 6-cell coverage

SoftBank 5G HAPS payload delivers 6-cell coverage
SoftBank has validated a multi‑cell, end‑to‑end 5G link via a high‑altitude platform payload, marking a concrete step toward stratospheric coverage that works with standard smartphones. In a June field trial over Hachijō Island, Japan, SoftBank mounted a newly developed payload on a light aircraft at 3,000 meters to emulate a High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) operating around 20 kilometers. The system stitched a millimeter‑wave feeder link at 26 GHz from a ground gateway to the aircraft with a sub‑2 GHz service link at 1.7 GHz from the aircraft to handsets, completing an end‑to‑end path through the 5G core.

Malaysia 5G and AI Upskilling for Government by DNB and Ericsson

Malaysia 5G and AI Upskilling for Government by DNB and Ericsson
Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) and Ericsson have launched a national upskilling program to train 40,000 municipal and government employees in 5G, AI, IoT and automation, signaling a shift from network build to service delivery readiness. Malaysia’s 5G footprint is expanding and the country is positioning for AI-led growth by 2030. Infrastructure alone will not unlock outcomes. Cities and agencies need people who can specify, procure, secure and operate digital services at scale. This initiative targets the execution gap by training frontline staff and policy makers on how to translate connectivity into citizen services, operational efficiency and data-driven decisions.

Private 5G Manufacturing Modernization in America

Private 5G Manufacturing Modernization in America
Manufacturers and wireless providers are shifting 5G from promising pilots to scaled, revenue‑relevant deployments across American factories. A joint report from the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and CTIA underscores a clear inflection point: commercial 5G, industrial AI and edge computing are maturing together. With 3GPP Release 16/17 capabilities such as URLLC, time‑sensitive networking integration, network slicing and non‑public networks, 5G is increasingly able to support time‑critical control, quality inspection and safety systems at scale. Production use cases are expanding and delivering measurable benefits. The message is consistent: companies that operationalize 5G alongside AI and automation will capture disproportionate productivity and resiliency advantages.

UK AI Investments: US Tech Giants Reshape Data Centers

AWS Invests $11 Billion in Georgia Data Centers to Power AI Growth
Tens of billions in new US tech commitments are set to reshape the UK’s data center footprint, power needs, and network design over the next four years. Microsoft plans to deploy $30 billion into UK AI infrastructure, its largest commitment in the country, split between new-build capacity and financing via partners such as Nscale. Alphabet added roughly £5 billion for AI research and infrastructure over two years and opened a new data center campus in Hertfordshire. These moves sit under a broader US-UK “Tech Prosperity Deal” announced during a state visit, spanning AI, quantum, and nuclear cooperation. The overall vector is clear: more compute, closer to UK users, on a faster timeline.

Nokia and Deutsche Bahn launch 1900 MHz 5G FRMCS rail network

Nokia and Deutsche Bahn launch 1900 MHz 5G FRMCS rail network
Nokia and Deutsche Bahn have activated a commercial-grade 5G Standalone network on the 1900 MHz band to validate Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS) operations on live tracks. The partners have launched a 5G SA deployment using the 1900 MHz (n101) spectrum band on DB’s digital railway test field in the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge), Germany. The network is built with Nokia AirScale radio equipment and an optimized, cloud-native 5G core, and it operates on moving trains on outdoor tracks. The setup includes built-in failover, self-healing, and real-time monitoring to sustain service continuity in mission-critical environments.

Meril Mizzo Endo 4000: AI and 5G Surgical Robotics

Meril Mizzo Endo 4000: AI and 5G Surgical Robotics
Meril Life Sciences, headquartered in Vapi, Gujarat, has introduced the Mizzo Endo 4000, a soft tissue robotic platform engineered for general, urology, gynecology, thoracic, colorectal, bariatric, hepatobiliary, ENT, gastrointestinal, and oncology procedures. Built and designed in India, the system targets precision, access, and cost barriers that have historically limited adoption. It pairs AI-powered 3D anatomical mapping with an open console design and immersive visualization, while enabling remote collaboration and telesurgery over high-performance 5G networks. Strategically, this positions India to compete with incumbent systems from Intuitive Surgical, Medtronic, and CMR Surgical, while appealing to price-sensitive markets across Asia and Africa.

Ericsson and depa extend 5G industrial innovation in Thailand

Ericsson and depa extend 5G industrial innovation in Thailand
Ericsson and Thailand’s Digital Economy Promotion Agency (depa) have extended their 5G cooperation for two more years to accelerate industrial digitalization under the Thailand 4.0 agenda. The updated memorandum of understanding renews a public–private framework that began in 2022 and centers on applied 5G innovation for manufacturers, logistics providers, energy firms, and smart city programs. A focal point remains the 5G Innovation and Experience Studio (5GIX Studio) in Thailand Digital Valley, Chonburi, which functions as a testbed and service hub for advanced wireless trials, spectrum sharing scenarios, and industry-grade applications.

What Are Private 5G Networks? Benefits, Use Cases & How They Work

What Are Private 5G Networks? Benefits, Use Cases & How They Work
Private 5G Networks are enterprise-controlled wireless systems offering secure, reliable, and high-performance connectivity. Learn what Private 5G Networks are, how they compare to Wi-Fi and public 5G, and how industries like manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare use them to power automation, IoT, and real-time data applications.

MWC25 Las Vegas: Bringing together technology leaders to share real-world enterprise use cases and shape the future of connectivity

MWC25 Las Vegas: Bringing together technology leaders to share real-world enterprise use cases and shape the future of connectivity
MWC25 Las Vegas is the premier North American event for CIOs and IT leaders, offering real-world insights on 5G, AI, IoT, private networks, and edge computing. With industry leaders from IBM, Qualcomm, T-Mobile, and more, the event focuses on actionable strategies for enterprise transformation.

Is AI Underperforming in Telecom? Challenges, Use Cases & the Road Ahead

Is AI Underperforming in Telecom? Challenges, Use Cases & the Road Ahead
The telecom sector once hailed AI as a game-changer, but is it delivering? This article explores why many operators report low ROI on AI tools, and how legacy systems, cultural resistance, and regulatory hurdles stall adoption. Despite challenges, AI shows targeted promise in predictive maintenance, fraud detection, and 5G network slicing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is network slicing in simple terms?
It’s the ability to carve a single physical 5G network into multiple virtual, independently configured slices, each with its own guaranteed performance characteristics for speed, latency, and reliability, so an operator can sell different service tiers off the same infrastructure rather than building separate networks for each use case. Each slice behaves, from the customer’s perspective, like a dedicated network tailored to their specific needs, even though it’s actually running on shared physical infrastructure alongside other slices serving completely different customers simultaneously. This is conceptually similar to how a single physical server can run multiple virtual machines that each behave like an independent computer, applied instead to network connectivity.
Is network slicing actually commercially available, or still experimental?
It has moved from pilot to early commercial deployment. Major carriers including T-Mobile, Verizon, Reliance Jio, and Singtel have launched commercial slicing-based offers for specific use cases, and telecom operators are described as the primary enablers of slicing technology, expected to hold roughly 62 percent of the market in 2026. That said, the industry consistently describes network slicing as being in the early stages of commercialization, meaning successful pilots are still being converted into broader, more scalable commercial offerings rather than slicing having become a fully mature, universally available product.
What’s a real-world example of network slicing in use?
Singtel partnered with Tencent Games to launch a dedicated low-latency network slice for cloud gaming in Singapore, described as the first nationwide gaming-specific network slice in the world, letting users play without downloading games or needing high-end hardware. Verizon Business launched a dedicated fixed wireless access slice for enterprise customers with guaranteed performance, extending slicing beyond mobile use cases into business broadband. Nokia and the UAE operator du were reportedly first in the industry to deploy autonomous network slicing, which automates the creation and management of slices rather than requiring extensive manual configuration.
Why does network slicing require 5G Standalone (SA)?
True dynamic, end-to-end network slicing depends on a 5G core built independently of 4G, known as 5G Standalone or SA architecture, since SA provides the flexibility and granular control needed to create, manage, and guarantee performance across multiple isolated virtual networks simultaneously. Non-standalone 5G, which still relies on a 4G core for certain control functions, can support some slicing-like capabilities but generally not with the same flexibility, automation, or end-to-end performance guarantees that SA enables. This is one of the main reasons operators have prioritized SA core upgrades specifically as a foundation for unlocking more advanced monetization opportunities like network slicing.
How big is the network slicing market expected to get?
Forecasts vary considerably depending on the specific market research firm, but most analyses put network slicing’s growth rate above 40 percent annually through the late 2020s, driven primarily by telecom operators monetizing differentiated connectivity for industries like healthcare, automotive, gaming, and manufacturing. Asia Pacific is generally described as leading global adoption given its large population base and diverse industrial use cases, while North America is often projected as the fastest-growing region given strong infrastructure investment. These projections should be treated with appropriate caution though, since the underlying market remains in an early commercialization phase.
Who actually manages and creates network slices in practice?
In practice, network slices are created and managed through orchestration software that translates a specific business requirement, such as guaranteed low latency for a particular customer’s application, into the actual technical configuration needed to deliver it across the relevant network infrastructure. This orchestration layer handles tasks like allocating the right combination of radio, transport, and core network resources to a given slice, monitoring whether it’s actually delivering its promised performance, and adjusting resource allocation dynamically as conditions change. More advanced, automated approaches, sometimes called autonomous network slicing, aim to handle much of this process automatically rather than requiring extensive manual configuration by network engineers each time.
What technical challenges have slowed broader network slicing adoption?
Several technical challenges have slowed broader adoption beyond the foundational requirement of upgrading to 5G Standalone infrastructure. Ensuring consistent performance guarantees across a slice that may span multiple different network domains, from radio access through transport and core, requires sophisticated end-to-end orchestration and assurance capabilities that have taken time to mature. Interoperability across different vendors’ equipment adds further complexity for operators running multi-vendor networks. There’s also a more fundamental business challenge: defining a manageable, scalable set of standard slice types that cover most customer needs, rather than requiring a fully custom-built slice for every individual customer, which would be operationally impractical at scale.
How is network slicing different from older approaches like VPNs or dedicated lines?
Older approaches like traditional VPNs or dedicated leased lines could provide a degree of network differentiation and security for specific customers, but they generally required separate, often physically distinct infrastructure or fixed, manually provisioned configurations that were slow and expensive to set up and change. Network slicing achieves a broadly similar goal, providing differentiated, somewhat isolated connectivity for a specific customer, but does so dynamically and through software, on top of shared underlying 5G infrastructure, without requiring separate physical infrastructure for each customer. This makes slicing considerably faster and cheaper to provision than traditional dedicated infrastructure approaches, while still providing meaningful performance guarantees and isolation.
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