Operators have confirmed: The first generation of 5G mobile phones can only use 4G networks

Recently, the inability of NSA 5G phones to continue using 5G networks has become a hot topic in the mobile phone industry. A netizen reported to the media that he bought a 5G phone from China Telecom last year, but after using it for half a year, his phone could no longer use the 5G network due to problems with the local base station upgrade.

In response, a China Telecom salesperson said that starting from December 25, 2020, Sichuan Province began to gradually upgrade NSA base stations to SA base stations. Only 5G mobile phones that support SA networking can continue to use the 5G network. In addition, the telecom customer service also suggested that the user go to the mobile phone manufacturer to replace the phone.

At present, netizens have had a huge dispute over the issue that the base station upgrade to SA mode has caused users' mobile phones to be unable to use the 5G network. Supporters believe that terminal manufacturers should pay for the single-mode NSA 5G mode mobile phones they launched, while opponents believe that the operators' behavior is a one-size-fits-all approach and that the sales staff has not fulfilled their obligation to inform users when purchasing the phone. However, mobile phone manufacturers have clearly marked the modes supported by the mobile phones when launching single-mode NSA 5G mobile phones.

It should be noted that the problem of users' mobile phones being unable to use 5G networks due to base station upgrades also exists in China Unicom. In January this year, a Unicom user in Sichuan also reported that his 5G mobile phone suddenly had no 5G signal. Later, Sichuan China Unicom officials also conducted a popular science event on where the 5G signal went, confirming that the 5G mobile phone had no 5G signal because China Unicom's 5G officially switched from NSA to SA. By the way, China Telecom and China Unicom's 5G networks are jointly built and shared.

As one of the new infrastructure projects, 5G has been promoted by official media, operators, mobile phone manufacturers, etc., and I believe everyone is familiar with its technology and specifications. In short, 5G is divided into two types of networking, namely NSA non-independent networking and SA independent networking. The so-called networking refers to the matching method of base stations and core networks. Among them, NSA usually refers to the coexistence of 4G base stations and 5G base stations on the wireless side, and the core network adopts the networking architecture of 4G core network or 5G core network. SA means that 5G base stations are used on the wireless side, and the core network completely adopts the networking architecture of 5G core network.

Obviously, SA can better play the technical characteristics of 5G, but due to the late finalization of the SA standard and cost considerations, there are not many operators in the world that directly adopt the SA solution, and my country's four major operators have also adopted the NSA transition solution.

Considering that NSA is a transitional solution, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has actually given enterprises a shot of prevention a long time ago. At a press conference, Miao Wei, Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, stated that from January 1, 2020, 5G terminals applying for network access in my country should, in principle, support both SA independent networking and NSA non-independent networking. At the same time, he also emphasized that my country's 5G network construction is mainly based on a hybrid mode of NSA and SA dual modes. From this point of view, China Telecom's sudden switch from NSA to SA is a bit hasty.

However, when China Telecom and China Unicom have started the construction of SA large-scale commercial use, I believe that China Mobile's SA commercial use is also coming soon. Fortunately, due to the aggressive performance of mobile phone manufacturers in 5G, my country's 5G mobile phones have been iterated three times in just two years, and the problem of single-mode NSA 5G mode has been completely solved since the second generation of 5G mobile phones. Starting from supporting NSA/SA dual-mode networking, everyone can buy 5G mobile phones with confidence.

However, if you are planning to buy a second-hand 5G phone, you should be careful to identify the networking mode of the second-hand phone and whether it only supports NSA single-mode networking. Here we have summarized a number of mainstream NSA single-mode 5G phones, including ZTE Axon 10 Pro 5G, Lenovo Z6 Pro 5G, OPPO Reno 5G, iQOO 5G, iQOO Pro 5G, vivo NEX 3 5G, Xiaomi 9 Pro 5G, Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ and Samsung W20 5G.