One of the biggest dilemmas for operators which are adopting 5G at an early stage (before 2022) is when to move from the Non-Standalone (NSA) mode, which continues to use the LTE core, to the Standalone (SA) mode, which requires its own 5G core. Some operators, such as those in Singapore, are under pressure from governments to move quickly to SA because it will enable a far wider variety of services, and look more like ‘real 5G’, than NSA. But most are protesting that SA systems, though standardized, are not ready for primetime yet, and moving too early risks excessive cost and complexity. When the first generation of 5G standards, 3GPP Release 15, was split into two phases under pressure…