Jio and T-Mobile US pioneer 5G SA roaming

Details: James Barton; Category: Wireless Networks; 22 September 2026; 2410 views

Reliance Jio and T-Mobile US have claimed the world’s first 5G Standalone roaming connection between their respective networks in India and the US.

The connection is enabled via a platform provided by Syniverse, with T-Mobile stating that it is the first SA 5G roaming carried out on a live network, rather than in trials or proof of concepts. T-Mobile US launched SA 5G in 2020; Jio was trialling the technology at this time using equipment manufactured in India.

For Jio, the move demonstrates that its SA 5G works across international networks - a major step towards its ambition of expanding its technology to overseas markets – using a 5G core instead of relying on legacy 4G infrastructure. This enables more advanced functionality such as lower latency and network slicing.

Reliance has expressed interest in making Jio’s technologies – such as the aforementioned 5G core as well as its cloud-native network technology, FWA and software platforms - available to operators overseas. Given its gigantic scale – around 533 million subscribers including 285 million 5G users – expanding into new markets presents Reliance with enormous opportunities.

Jio’s partnership with T-Mobile US demonstrates that its technology can work with networks outside India, which will serve as a demonstration of its networking capabilities to potential investors. While this partnership is focused on consumer roaming, enterprise use cases would likely be more appealing to investors going forward, with standalone 5G able to support services such as industrial IoT and network slicing.