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Telenor intends to launch its commercial 5G services in 2020
Norway’s biggest telco, Telenor, has announced plans to expand its 5G pilot scheme, ahead of an intended 5G commercial rollout in 2020.
The pilot will be conducted in partnership with Ericsson and will build on the success of the company’s existing 5G trials in Kongsberg, Norway.
“It’s important for Telenor to continuously expand our knowledge and experience through actively testing the 5G technology together with suppliers. Through experimenting we also assess the 5G technological requirements as well as how we and Telenor’s customers can take advantage of the vast opportunities the 5G technology brings. Together with Ericsson we will experiment with ways to design the 5G network, understand the vendor capabilities and use of the technology, and test new use cases,” said Ruza Sabanovic, chief technology officer for Telenor Group.
Telenor has already entered into an agreement with Ericsson and Nokia to modernise the core of its networks in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
The company has not yet selected which vendor it will use for its nationwide 5G rollout, and Telenor’s CEO states that the data harvested from the forthcoming trial will enable the Scandinavian telco to make some important decisions on the commercial front.
“Both the existing pilot in Kongsberg and our newest pilot activity will enable us to better evaluate which technological, functional and commercial solutions are optimal for our future 5G network and for our customers,” says Bjørn Ivar Moen, acting CEO, Telenor Norway.
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