Orange Spain says it has reached a “major milestone” in its 5G plan, having made the first voice and data call in Spain using 5G New Radio Standalone (NR SA) technology. Just about every MNO in the world is first deploying 5G using New Radio Non-Standalone (NSA), which works with an existing LTE core and so enables a relatively quick first roll-out, because there is no need to implement the cloud-native 5G core until the business case fully demands it. Even China Mobile, the only major operator which had planned to go straight to Standalone mode, is actually using NSA for its earliest markets. When and how to transition to the full 5G core, and which combinations of 4G and…