It is deploying Nokia 5G Standalone Core “to drive greater services and reliability for O2 Czech Republic subscribers, in addition to new revenue streams for the operator”
O2 Czech Republic has deployed Nokia 5G Standalone (SA) Core software which will enable it to offer services like slicing in multi-cloud environments, improve customers’ experience and gain new revenue streams. It is the first operator in the country to deploy 5G SA. Nokia says the rollout strengthens O2 Czech Republic’s network with greater reliability, scale, security, energy efficiency for better mobile battery life and near zero-touch automation for managing workloads.
Jakub Votava, Network Director at O2 Czech Republic, stated, “Deploying Nokia 5G SA Core closely aligns with and bolsters O2 Czech Republic’s cloud-first strategy and delivers more secure communications to our customers. This rollout allows us to deliver new 5G services faster, with even lower latency, and without vendor lock-in for our data and analytics, producing an optimized network with a host of operational efficiencies.”
5G SA’s progress
At the end of Q1 2025, Nokia said it led the world in 5G SA Core deployments with 52 operators offering live 5G Standalone service, and that it had the most 5G Standalone Core CSP customers at 125 in total.
According to the GSA’s figures in April 2025, 163 operators across 65 countries are investing in public 5G SA networks, up from 154 in 4Q 2024, with 73 operators in 39 countries having launched or soft-launched services.
The GSA also found that the Europe, Middle East and Africa region has overtaken Asia–Pacific in the number of commercial 5G SA network launches, driven largely by increased activity in Europe.
GSA also identified 101 organisations globally piloting or deploying private 5G SA networks, spanning sectors such as manufacturing, research and transportation.
The number of 5G SA-capable devices rose to 2,334 announced, up 34% since March 2024, with 2,102 commercially available — phones make up over 60% of this total, the GSA said. It added that carrier aggregation and millimetre-wave support are emerging focus areas, alongside continued growth in support for sub-6 GHz spectrum bands like C-band, 2.6 GHz, and 700 MHz.
