5G around the world

The United Kingdom

• The UK government announced in July its intention to invest in a nationally coordinated programme of 5G testbed facilities and trials as part of its commitment to boost the UK’s digital infrastructure. It has set ambitious targets for full fibre and 5G development including reducing the cost of fibre broadband, remote rural prioritised for funding, full fibre switchover and increase the spectrum for innovative 5G services. The Independent Networks Cooperative Association (INCA) conference last week united Government and Ofcom representatives with members including Vodafone and Sky to debate the UK’s 5G future after the announcement of the UK chancellor’s £250 million boost for broadband.
• The UK’s largest mobile network EE announced this week its plan to launch 5G across 16 cities during 2019 and switching on the next-generation network in the busiest locations including London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Belfast, Birmingham and Manchester as phase one. BT Group Chief Executive said in a statement the increase in reliability and speed is another milestone. “We have an ambition to connect our customers to 4G, 5G or Wi-Fi 100% of the time.”
• UK’s network provider Three signed an agreement with SSE Enterprise Telecoms earlier this year to connect Three’s network with BT local telephone exchanges as part of its 5G network preparation. Three estimated this partnership will enable its capacity to grow more than twenty fold. Three announced the promise of 5G would have the capacity to cope with demand of usage meaning households could save by dropping fixed-line home broadband. While its Chief Technology Officer Bryn Jones said: “Fibre is essential to the UK’s digital future and more needs to be done to improve its availability to ensure that the UK benefits from 5G at the earliest opportunity.”

Chile

The largest telecommunication company in Chile, Entel, announced its partnership with Ericsson at the end of October to bring 5G wireless services to its customers with phases rolling out throughout 2018 and 2019. As the first Latin American operator to deploy Massive MIMO nationwide it is set to fully virtualise network services for voice, IP and enrich real-time communication services. 

Germany

• In May this year, Germany successfully demonstrated Europe’s first 5G data connection over a live network using a Deutsche Telekom 5G cluster with more than 70 antennas which fully supported the new communications standard in real-world conditions.
• Yesterday, the German government decided to release the entire 3.4 to 3.8 GHz band (C-band) making available all of the spectrum for 5G, showing Germany’s commitment as a global 5G leader. However, Deutsche Telekom Chief Executive Tim Hoettges warned earlier this month in a conference call the disaster on its home market if politicians botch the 5G plans on network coverage and buildout. He said: “I am not going to take part in the further inflation of targets. If we carry on like this, we will face an industrial policy disaster.”
• Expected to start its 5G auctions in early 2019, senior German officials have announced a final plea to the government to reconsider using Chinese firm Huawei from building the 5G infrastructure with concerns this could compromise national safety. Huawei is set to open a new information security lab in Bonn this week to enable source code reviews ahead of the 5G auction. While the German government is keen to maintain its close trade and investment with Beijing based manufacturer without compromising its cybersecurity, officials are not convinced following the US and Australian governments ban on Huawei  constructing its 5G networks.

Sweden and Estonia

• Swedish-Finnish telecom operator TeliaSonera, and Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson announced in January 2016 that Stockholm and Tallinn in Estonia would be the first cities to have the new wireless mobile technology, 5G, rolled out in 2018. Delivering on its promise the first 5G pilot network was launched at Tallin University of Technology in September demonstrating how 5G will improve traffic, communications and smart devices.
• While 800 delegates in Stockholm saw demonstrations from manufacturers Telia, Ericsson and Intel who showcased the use of 5G to deliver AR using the low latency and high data rates of 5G. Per Narvinger, Head of Ericsson Northern and Central Europe, said: “5G use cases are moving from the realms of the imagination to the realms of reality.”
• In other Ericsson news, the company launched a new division called Edge Gravity – a semi-autonomous unit within Ericsson that “operates a global edge cloud network that links together a core network of data centres with the last-mile networks of more than 80 partners that include cable operators, telcos and mobile service providers.”