Verizon continued preparations to move traffic to a standalone (SA) 5G core later this year, announcing the completion of its first successful end-to-end data session using the infrastructure.

In a statement, the US operator noted the new core would provide advanced 5G capabilities including higher bandwidth and lower latency, and open a range of use cases in the IoT space, consumer handsets and through AR, VR and mixed reality applications, among others.

Next generation use cases will be enabled by technologies such as dynamic allocation of resources through network slicing. Verizon expects to start moving traffic onto the new core by the end of this year with “full commercialisation” in 2021.

Verizon VP for planning Bill Stone said the core would be “critical for unleashing the most advanced benefits of 5G technology including remarkable levels of programmability to manage the advanced solutions and exponential traffic” the technology will bring.

It announced the start of a trial of its SA 5G core with Ericsson in July 2019.

Verizon is one of a number of operators across the world progressing towards providing full SA 5G including market rivals AT&T and T-Mobile US. The technology is widely expected to provide the infrastructure to deliver many of the advanced use cases promised by the new network technology.