A consumer selects mobile phones in a 5G telecom business office in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province on Sunday. Photo: IC

Domestic carrier China Telecom said on Tuesday that it has accomplished the comprehensive connection between the 5G standalone (SA) network terminal chip and systems of multiple companies, marking the commercialization of the 5G SA network in terminals.

Using Huawei's Balong 5000 chipset, the carrier has realized the milestone at the end of July, according to a report from domestic media site stcn.com on Tuesday.

Huawei launched its first 5G chipset named Balong 5000 in January, which it claimed is the most powerful single chip that supports different architectures.

After tackling 15 important issues, the July test realized full chipset-system connection.

All three major carriers in China - China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom - have been firm supporters of the country's 5G deployment for the SA network, which is different from another 5G network architecture - non-standalone (NSA).

The three major carriers have announced plans to deploy the pre-commercial application of 5G this year and achieve formal commercial application in 2020.

"Compared with NSA, which has already realized commercialization, the SA network is still at the research and development phase," according to Fu Liang, a veteran industry analyst.

It is expected that more 5G SA chipsets will be rolled out in the second half of this year or early next year, Fu told the Global Times on Tuesday.

In June, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology granted 5G licenses to the three major telecom operators and China Broadcasting Network Corp amid the global race for 5G rollout.