BIG 5G EVENT: Executives from AT&T and Orange tipped standalone (SA) 5G as a catalyst for fixed and mobile network convergence due to the drastically lower latency on offer.

During a panel session, VP of technology strategy and development at Orange’s US subsidiary Gabriel Sidhom said the less than five millisecond latency expected from SA 5G will enable a “qualitative change in the kind of applications that we can think of”.

The Orange Silicon Valley executive compared the potential shift to being “unchackled” from fixed-line telephony by mobile.

Gordon Mansfield, AT&T VP of mobility and access architecture, said network convergence is “very possible” with 5G because 3GPP standards now allow for resource sharing between different access technologies.

However, he noted to deliver on the promise of ultra-low latency, operators must to look beyond their radio and core networks and “start thinking about the topology of their transport network” to avoid potential traffic bottlenecks.