This paper compares the power consumption of Long-Term Evolution (LTE), 5G Non-Standalone (5G-NSA), 5G-Standalone (5G-SA), and private 5G-SA networks at two locations. Our findings reveal that 5G-NSA consumes 92% to 111% more energy than LTE, while 5G-SA consumes 79% more. Although 5G-SA is 6.5% more efficient than 5G-NSA, both are less efficient than LTE. Notably, private 5G-SA is 63% more energy-efficient than public 5G-SA. These results highlight the need for optimized network design and technology selection based on specific use case requirements to ensure energy-efficient mobile communication.
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Singh et al. (2025) studied this question.