Singapore’s telecom regulator, IMDA, caused consternation among MNOs last year when it said it would insist that they deployed 5G Standalone from day one, rather than first relying on Non-Standalone, which uses the existing 4G core, as every non-greenfield operator has done so far. Aileen Chia, director-general of IMDA, explained the decision last week, claiming that SA will enable more rapid innovation in services. Speaking at a seminar on Asian 5G, Chia said regulators had to ask ‘what can 5G do for us?’. The answer, she said, was that “the policy approach for 5G would not be the same as for 3G and 4G, of just making spectrum available and letting the operators roll out the network.” Instead, 5G would…