South Korea-based KT moved a step closer to switching on long-awaited standalone (SA) 5G service, after initiating tests on its commercial network at offices in major cities, Yonhap News Agency reported.

The operator said the tests are the final step before it launches a commercial service, the news service wrote.

Aju Business Daily reported Lee Cheol-gyu, head of KT’s network division, said the operator will deploy an integrated core network and then evolve the SA 5G infrastructure into a “platform that can integrate with other industries”, adding it will test communication quality by applying its own EPS fallback technology.

The three major operators in the country were tipped to start SA service in 2020, but pushed back the launches mainly due to disruptions caused by Covid-19 (coronavirus) restrictions.

They launched 5G services in April 2019 based on the non-standalone (NSA) architecture, which rely on 4G core networks.