Telia Norway has become the first operator in the country to launch commercial 5G standalone, making the service available across its entire national footprint under the branding Advanced 5G.
The operator completed its nationwide 5G rollout in 2024 and says the move to standalone will allow enterprises and public sector users to take advantage of capabilities such as network slicing and ultra-low latency. In a standalone architecture, the 5G radio access network connects directly to a 5G core rather than relying on 4G, enabling features such as dedicated slices for specific applications.
Telia said latency on 5G SA can drop to under 10 milliseconds, compared with 15–18 milliseconds on non-standalone 5G, alongside support for significantly higher device density. It highlighted use cases in areas such as emergency services, healthcare and remote-controlled industrial applications.
Ahead of the commercial rollout, Telia ran pilots with organisations including public broadcaster NRK, the Norwegian Armed Forces and construction firm Veidekke.
Telia also pointed to industry tracking suggesting 5G SA is still relatively rare globally, citing GSA data that around 10% of mobile operators worldwide have launched commercial 5G standalone services.
The announcement follows independent benchmarking by Rohde & Schwarz, which named Telia’s mobile network best in Norway for the second consecutive year. Telia said it ended Q4 2025 with more than 1.8 million mobile postpaid subscribers in Norway across consumer and enterprise segments.
