Nokia and Ericsson set to drive Telefonica’s 5G push across Spain

At the start of September, Telefonica commercially launched its 5G network in Spain, with executive chairman José María Álvarez-Pallete calling the move “a leap forward towards the hyperconnectivity that will change the future of Spain.”

 

At the time, he also announced that the company planned to extend its initially limited 5G coverage to reach over 75% of the country’s population by the end of 2020. 

 

Achieving this target will be no small feat. The company said that it is targetting around 150 cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, almost all the cities with 30,000 inhabitants, more than 50% of those with 20,000 inhabitants, and some with more than 10,000 inhabitants.

 

Today, in almost concurrent press releases, both Nokia and Ericsson have announced their support for Telefonica’s rapid rollout plans.

 

The Spanish operator has already been working with both of these operators for some time now, meaning that the upgrading of the radio equipment and software should theoretically be a quick and efficient process.

 

Ericsson said thousands of its 5G sites are set to be activated by the end of the year, while Nokia said it was supplying Telefonica with its AirScale RAN products, as well as ubiquitous deployment support.

 

Telefonica will need to be bold when it comes to deploying 5G in Spain, since the 5G playing field recently got a lot more competitive. Vodafone commercially launched 5G on a limited scale back in the summer of last year and has been adding cities ever since, giving it something of a commanding lead. 

 

But Telefonica will not be Vodafone’s only 5G challenger in Iberia. In the last two weeks, Orange Spain launched 5G in major cities around the country, with Masmovil following suit just days later (albeit via piggybacking on Orange’s network). Masmovil does, however, have plans to launch 5G of its own in the near future.

 

The battle for Spainish 5G supremacy has certainly begun.

 

 

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